


The Council of the Four Seasons

by idinathoreau



Series: Council Era [1]
Category: Frozen (2013)
Genre: F/F, F/M, Fire Powers, Frozen mythos, Ice Powers, Lesbian Character, Lesbian Elsa, Magic, Original Mythology, Post-Canon, Post-Frozen (2013), Sequel, where Elsa's ice powers come from
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-08
Updated: 2016-11-14
Packaged: 2018-06-07 05:22:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 21
Words: 197,749
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6787114
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/idinathoreau/pseuds/idinathoreau
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Two days after the end of the eternal winter, Elsa disappears without a trace. Kristoff, Sven and Olaf go after her, leaving Anna in charge of an Arendelle that is still very much unsettled. Meanwhile, Elsa is about to discover exactly where her frosty powers came from…and what destiny they tie her to.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A Summer Storm

The troll named Goren was running so fast he was practically rolling. He dashed past the chapel and the meeting hall, trying his best not to curl up in a ball. If he did, he might inadvertently go into hibernation. He rounded the corner, hopping several times on his left foot to keep himself from falling over.  
He knew he wasn't supposed to interrupt the Mistress's meditation but this was unprecedented. This could not go ignored.  
After two more hallways, he finally skidded into the isolation room, his legs giving out underneath him so that he ended up slipping on his rocky rear end. He shot right past his meditating mistress and ended up having to claw at the ground to get himself to stop. He rolled several times ending up on his stomach.  
"Theonia!" He called out towards the woman in the center of the room."Mistress, it's happened!"  
The black-haired woman sitting cross-legged in the middle of the floor opened her eyes slowly, like an ember slowly breathing to life. "What." She stated simply, not even looking at him.  
He scrambled back to his feet and gestured her to follow him. "Come! Look outside!"  
She grabbed her cloak and hurried after him, fastening the billowing material around her neck as she went. He led her to the temple entrance, rolling a bit so he could keep up with her long strides. When they reached the entrance hall, Theonia went straight to the window. Her eyes were immediately drawn far to the east.  
"A winter storm…?" It was the summer solstice. Theonia's grip tightened on the window sill. "Where is that place?" She asked, picking out a castle in the epicenter of the storm.  
The troll rolled along the floor curled up in a ball and then sprang into the air, barely managing to catch himself on the edge of the windowsill. "I believe it is Arendelle, the castle on the fjord." He told Theonia as he scrambled back to his feet. "It is a small kingdom, peaceful but prosperous and notoriously secluded."  
Theonia gazed out towards the miniscule castle in the distance as ice began to climb its many turrets and balconies. She turned to the troll just as he managed to gain a favorable footing on the window. "Goren! The scroll!"  
Undeterred by the unfortunate timing, the tiny troll scampered away and raced over to an untidy bookshelf in the next room. From the very bottom shelf, he tugged on a long blue scroll until he finally freed it from under a stack of books.  
Goren raced back to Theonia's side, crashing into the wall under the window and panting hard.  
"Births in that kingdom on the summer solstice." She commanded, not sparing him a glance as she continued to watch the city.  
The little rock man unfurled the scroll and peered carefully at the tiny moving writing.  
"None today my lady." He replied, gasping to regain his breath.  
"Check past years."  
He diligently unfurled the scroll further. "None…none…none…oh wait!" He called as his eyes fell on one tiny name inscribed near the end. "Ah yes… there was one."  
Theonia bristled. "Who?"  
Goren glanced up at her. "My lady, this birth was twenty-one years ago…"  
"Well, that's exactly how long we've been looking isn't it?"  
Goren looked at the scroll again. "She's a princess…"  
Theonia visibly froze. "…impossible…" Her eyes followed the howling storm winds for a full minute before she turned to Goren. "How long has the kingdom been sealed?"  
"Fourteen years." Goren replied.  
"That would make her…seven when she…"  
The two of them turned back to Arendelle, watching the icy winds swirl and twist, gradually building so much that they obscured the castle from view. Theonia shivered visibly.  
"'Winter's fury knows no master.'" The troll said softly from his perch on the windowsill. The long scroll had fallen behind him, unfurling across the floor.  
"'Except the warmth that quells it faster.'" Theonia finished just as softly. She watched the swirling storm with a mixture of fear, awe and excitement. "Call to Scara and Garret," She told Goren. "we leave immediately."  
A young man entered the room then, drenched in sweat and carrying a heavy axe effortlessly over one shoulder. "What's going on?" He asked, wiping his brow as he looked from Theonia to Goren to the scroll.  
Theonia met his gaze, her eyes burning. "We've found her."


	2. Vanishing Act

Queen Elsa of Arendelle had never been one to show off. Far from it, she’d spent most of her life trying to avoid all unnecessary attention. The only person she’d ever cared about impressing was Anna.  
Nonetheless, she couldn’t help flaunting her powers today.   
She waved her hands, feeling the power flow so easily through them. It used to terrify her but now that she’d learned the secret of controlling it, the feeling gave her pleasure and pride. The snowflake quickly formed above her hands, shards expanding in an intricate pattern. Elsa twirled her hands and the flake grew until it was the size of her head. After a quick flurry of her fingers to freeze the sculpture permanently, Elsa let it go. The unique sculpture floated gently into the eager hands of the child waiting.  
“Thank you Queen Elsa!” The little girl said with a huge smile that melted Elsa’s heart. The little girl ran off with her prize, quickly drawing a crowd of admirers to gape at the beauty of her ice-snowflake.   
Elsa chuckled and leaned back, a pillar of ice quickly rising up to support her exhausted frame. She wanted so desperately to fall asleep but knew that would be impossible. The sun was starting to set, slowly falling into the fjord to the west.  
It had taken a day to reorganize the visiting lords and ladies, find replacement ships for those whose had been damaged in Elsa’s storm and finalize all termination of trade agreements with Weselton and the Southern Isles. She hadn’t slept that night, trying to figure out where new sources of income would come from after the end of trade with two of their closest partners. Then this morning, after the first cup of tea she hadn’t accidentally frozen in years, she’d organized the Arendelle scouts to compile reports from all over the kingdom of areas and businesses that had been particularly hard hit by her freak storm. She had to make this right as best she could. She’d hardly finished that when her presence had been demanded in the courtyard to prove to the citizens of the capitol that she was in complete control of her powers. She’d gone a little overboard, she would admit but she couldn’t help it. She’d held it in so long it was nothing short of a relief to let it out. And now that she knew she wouldn’t hurt anybody, she let her powers shine like she never had before. She had created an ice rink, frozen the courtyard fountains and spruced up the castle a bit with some ice sculptures and ornaments that would never melt. It wasn’t her ice palace in the mountains but it finally felt like home.  
Now it was day two of Elsa showing the kingdom her gift. They had all been so accepting, her people. Especially after her crazy escape barely three days ago, the few days of bitter cold and the cloud of fear that had clung to the kingdom all that time. Apparently, lifting the winter and showing human emotion after believing she’d killed her sister was all it took to win the sympathies of the people of Arendelle. Today, they had asked her to make them a summer ice rink. She was all too happy to comply.  
“What are you smiling about?” Elsa turned her head to the voice of her sister and gestured after the excited girl.  
“She reminds me of you.” She told Anna.  
Anna smiled, leaning against Elsa’s ice pillar. “Please tell me I did not shriek that much as a child.” She said as the little girl let out a high pitched squeal and skated around the ice with her snowflake held high above her head.  
Elsa chuckled tiredly. “You still do.” She assured Anna, which earned her an incredulous look. “Especially around that handsome mountain man…”  
Anna’s blush was as red as the sun. “I do not!” She shrieked, drawing the attention of several people in the courtyard. Elsa chuckled.  
“I do not shriek around Kristoff!” Anna hissed at Elsa but she was still blushing.   
Elsa chuckled. “Relax Anna, I’m only teasing.”  
“Sorry…it’s just…I’m not used to you…being like this.” Elsa tensed at the timidity in Anna’s voice. The two sisters were silent, watching the others skate and shout as the sun continued to sink.  
As she so often had for the last fourteen years, Elsa watched her sister without letting the other girl know. Anna and her hadn’t had a chance to spend much time together after the thaw. Elsa had insisted that Anna get some food and sleep while she dealt with the fiasco resulting from her storm. Then this morning, Anna had gone off with Kristoff to finalize their promise to replace his sled and belongings.  
The sisters had skated this afternoon but since then, they’d hardly seen each other. Anna had gone off with Kristoff somewhere and Elsa had had to rebuild Olaf after he’d learned the hard way that the forge and the baker’s shop was not the best place for a snowman to hang out if he wanted to remain a snowman.   
Elsa shook her head in disbelief still amazed that her powers had been able to create and sustain life. She’d have to teach Olaf the difference between heat that his flurry could hold back and unbearable heat that would cause him to melt.  
Unconsciously as the two sisters stood there in silence, Anna’s hand reached for Elsa’s. As the girl’s warm fingers brushed the back of her hand, a sudden jolt of fear shot through Elsa.  
Reflexively, she leaped away from the contact.  
“Elsa…I just want to hold your hand…” Anna looked hurt.  
Elsa took a few deep breaths and waved her hands at the icicles that had popped up around them. Slowly, they broke apart and melted. “Anna, please.” Elsa pleaded, clasping her hands tightly together and trying to get herself back under control. “Give me some time. I…this wont be easy for me.”   
“You were fine earlier.” Anna pointed out, standing up.  
Elsa ran her hands through her hair. “I know…I’m sorry…I’m sorry.” Her heart was still pounding, even though her head was reminding her that this was okay now. She could touch her sister if she wanted to.   
“So what’s wrong?”Anna asked, her concern written all over her face.  
Elsa stopped wringing her hands before she answered. “Anna, I spent fourteen years sealing myself off. It’s going to take me some time to be comfortable opening up again.”  
Anna sighed sadly. “It’s okay Elsa.” She pushed away from the ice pillar, not looking at Elsa.  
“Anna…” Elsa tried to grab her sister’s arm but Anna was too far away.  
Anna turned away. “I’ll be here. As soon as you’re ready to be my sister again.”  
Even thought there was no spite in Anna’s words, only gentle encouragement, it didn’t stop the statement from cutting into Elsa’s heart.   
“Anna…”  
But her sister had gone back inside. And Elsa was left feeling strangely empty inside.  
***  
It was midnight when the three cloaked figures reached the far side of the fjord. Their arrival had been somewhat delayed by the enormous winter storm that had brutally swept across the northern forests for two days and then suddenly lifted the previous day.  
“That is some fearsome power Winter has…” Said a woman as the group made their way across the thawed fjord.   
“You know the winter spirit.” A short man replied. “Very temperamental, governed by its emotions.”  
The woman nodded in agreement. “Some tantrum then.”  
“She’s twenty-one years old, this is no ordinary fit.”  
“Could be. I mean, after all, she is a princess.”  
The final member of the trio was silent, staring ahead at the large gates of Arendelle Castle.   
“What’s on your mind?” The man asked, snapping the final member from her thoughts.   
“Many things.” Was all the other woman would say as she guided their vessel out across the still fjord. As they flew across the water, the woman spoke again. “Remember: she’ll have white-hair, blue eyes…”   
“Icy demeanor.”  
She glared at the man until he ducked his head.  
“No one sees us, no one gets hurt.” The woman continued as the others nodded in agreement. “But this is done. We do not leave without that which we came for.”   
***  
Even though it was late and Elsa hadn’t slept at all the night before, she still could not sleep. She wandered around the courtyard, alternately creating and destroying patches and sculptures of ice just because she could. It was such an odd feeling to be able to remove her ice and snow from whatever it had touched. She’d wished her entire life that she could do that. Who knew the answer had been so simple?  
Anna. The one person she could never hurt.  
Elsa left the courtyard and ascended to the secondary balcony that stretched along the second floor of the castle. Her heels clacked against the stones but no ice formed under her feet.  
She’d missed her sister so much these last two days. Learning she could control herself around her, that she could touch her again and let her into her life was the best thing that had happened to her in her entire life. She was desperate for more. She wanted to know everything her sister had felt these past years when they’d been separated. What her sister had done these past few days that had led to her jumping in front of a blade for her. What her sister’s plans were going forward with Kristoff. She wanted to hug her, to stroke her hair and slowly begin to make up for fourteen years of forced icy indifference.   
But it was so hard to open herself up like that. She’d wanted something like this for years. But now that is was possible again, she couldn’t seem to reach out and take it.   
“Elsa?”  
The queen jumped. She had been so lost in her thoughts that she hadn’t heard or felt Olaf walking up to her.  
“Hey Olaf, why aren’t you in bed?”  
“I couldn’t sleep.” The snowman replied, toddling up to her. “Something hurts.”  
Elsa crouched down next to him. “What hurts?” She asked gently, placing a hand on his head. In the few days Elsa had known him, she’d never known the snowman to feel pain. After all, his entire body came apart four times a day and he hardly batted an eyelash.  
Olaf squirmed in delight under the attention. “Right here.” He told her, pulling off one of his arms and using it to point at his chest.  
Elsa was intrigued. “That’s your heart, Olaf.” She told him with a reassuring smile.  
Olaf tilted his head to the side. “Heart?”  
Elsa nodded.  
“But why does it hurt?” Olaf asked, sticking his arm back into place.  
“It hurts because…because sometimes it’s hard to feel love for someone.”  
“Why?”  
Elsa had to smile at Olaf’s simple yet impossible question. “Because…sometimes you just cant tell that person how much they mean to you and it makes you feel weak.”  
Olaf gently took Elsa’s hand in his own twiggy one. “Do you ever feel like this Elsa?”  
Her thoughts were only of Anna. “…All the time.”  
“Why?”  
“Because I love my sister. And it’s hard for me to tell her that. I loved her for years and I couldn’t ever tell her because I had to keep her safe. And now I’m worried that she still thinks I want to keep things from her. That I’m still shutting her out.”  
“Oh Anna knows.” Olaf said.  
“How do you know?”  
“Anna loves you.” Olaf reassured her. “And she knows you love her. Because she doesn’t give up on you. She never did.” He shrugged. “Maybe it’s not something you need to say but something you need to show. Like how Anna threw herself between Hans and you to prove her love.”   
Olaf’s blunt but entirely innocent statement felt like it was sending an icicle straight through Elsa’s heart.   
But he was right. What was the point of forcing this? She loved Anna, Anna loved her, they had both proven that in their own ways.   
Olaf was patting his chest experimentally. “Thanks Elsa, I feel better.” He jumped up to hug her tightly around the neck. “Goodnight!”  
Elsa chuckled and hugged him back briefly. “Goodnight, Olaf. Thank you.”  
As Olaf ran back inside to his new bedroom. Elsa watched him go, feeling better herself.  
Standing up again, Elsa shot ice from her hand, creating a wide base on the ground.   
Olaf reminded her so much of the childhood that her powers had ripped from her. Those innocent days when everything was simple and hugging her sister had been second nature. She still wasn’t comfortable with human contact, her initial reaction was still to flinch away from it, to seal herself away where she wouldn’t hurt anyone. But even though her head knew she could never hurt Anna again, her heart would not stop worrying.  
Elsa widened the base with a sweep of her hand, her ice following her thoughts more than it did her gestures. Olaf was right, maybe she couldn’t tell Anna how she felt in words. She’d just have to let her sister know that she was trying, that she still wanted this but just couldn’t open herself up yet.  
Elsa would have to show her in her own way.  
The air grew colder around her as she flaunted her powers. She sculpted the new statue as much with her heart as with her gift. Even though it wasn’t necessary, she began to dance, stepping lightly and spinning to form the ice not only with her hands but her entire body, the same way she’d created her ice palace.   
The statue quickly took shape: two young girls surrounded by icy heaps of snow. In between them, there was the half-formed shape of a snowman.  
Anyone who knew the sisters well would immediately realize it was supposed to be the two of them from long ago. Their maids might know and some of the others of the palace staff might figure it out if they admired it long enough. To anyone else, this was simply another sculpture. But only Anna would know its real significance. This was the relationship she wanted with her sister again. Open, innocent and fun.  
Elsa looked up as she added the finishing touches: darker blue cheeks for Anna and a slightly lighter hair shade for herself. She nodded in satisfaction. The sculpture was positioned at the perfect angle for Anna to see it when she looked out her window.  
With a final twirl, she froze the statue permanently. She took a step back to admire it.  
It was only when she lowered her hands that she realized she was being watched.   
Elsa whirled around and saw two hooded figures on the far end of the courtyard, patiently watching her. They were still and silent, as if they had risen from the shadows.  
Elsa immediately stiffened, her hands coming up in defense. “Who are you? Show your faces!” How had they gotten inside the castle?   
As one, the two figures raised their hands and lowered their hoods.  
Elsa took a step back. This was certainly not what she had been expecting.   
She was facing two women: one of them a black-haired woman about her own age, the other a shorter yellow-blonde woman who could not have been much older than Anna. The black-haired woman had her hair cropped close to her skull, the blonde’s ran long and loose down her back.  
“Elsa of Arendelle.” The black-haired woman said without a hint of question.  
“That’s Queen Elsa to you.” Elsa replied, drawing her head higher. “Who are you?”   
The women did not answer her question.  
“I’m very sorry, Elsa.” The black-haired woman said. “But you’ll have to come with us.”  
Elsa smiled pleasantly. “I’m afraid that’s just not possible.” She said in a voice like ice.  
“You will come or we will have to take you by force.” Said the black-haired one, her voice flat.  
“I’d like to see you try.” Elsa replied, flexing the fingers on her left hand, feeling the power run down them. “Maybe you just don’t know who you are dealing with.”  
The black-haired woman smiled sadly. “Oh we know exactly who we are dealing with.” She nodded at the blonde woman and the two of them stepped closer together, their shoulders touching.  
Elsa stamped her foot and the floor of the courtyard immediately iced over. The two didn’t even blink.  
Gathering her power into a condensed ball in her palms, Elsa shot ice at the black-haired woman but none of it seemed to touch her. It all vanished as it approached her.   
Realizing her attack was doing nothing, Elsa stopped, puzzled. There was a puddle of water around the women now, as if all her ice had simply melted upon coming into proximity of the two. Elsa flicked her fingers at the puddle and it instantly froze. And then instantly unfroze and returned to water.   
The black-haired woman continued to stare at Elsa, not moving a muscle.  
“Scara.” She said.  
The blonde made a gesture with her hand and suddenly the courtyard plants all sprung to life, vines snapping. Elsa barely had time to blink before they were snapping at her ankles and twining their way up her legs.  
She shot ice at a vine, freezing it in place but two more quickly took its place and trapped her hands. She struggled and fought, snow shooting ineffectively from her restrained fingers. The vines wrapped tightly around her, constricting her chest painfully and stretching her limbs out in all directions. Elsa feebly waved her hand at the vines but they shook off the thin layer of ice she sent around them.   
The vines had reached her face, they were closing around her throat and mouth.  
Elsa closed her eyes as leaves grew over them. This was it, she was never going to see Anna again, never get to apologize…   
Anna…  
Her eyes snapped open and the cold burst from her in all directions. With a splintering snap, all the vines on her body froze and broke into pieces, raining down to the courtyard below. Elsa dropped to the ground, landing heavily but otherwise unhurt. She looked up.  
Both the women were staring at her in alarm but not, she realized, in fear.  
Slowly, she stood, her power glowing in her palms. The temperature in the courtyard dropped so much that everyone’s breath became visible as they exhaled. She saw them both shiver and glance at each other as if rethinking their strategy.  
Icicles began to rise out of the courtyard floor, all of them deadly sharp and pointing at the cloaked women.   
These two would come to fear her. She didn’t care who they were or what kind of powers these two had. No one walked into her kingdom and tried to kidnap her. No one threatened Arendelle. No one.  
Elsa suddenly felt a tiny poking sensation on the back of her neck and the cold in her palms evaporated. When she rubbed the spot, her fingers came away clutching a tiny, bloody barb.  
“What…?”  
She called to the ice in her veins but none came. She swayed, suddenly woozy, two sleepless nights and the events of the last week quickly catching up to her and hitting her all at once. Every muscle clenched painfully, her breath became labored. Elsa tried to focus on the two women in front of her, tried to force her gift to immobilize them, or her throat to scream for help. Neither responded.   
She fell. There was a large leaf under her, softening her head as it met the warming ground…  
“Was that really necessary?” The black-haired woman called as Elsa dropped to the courtyard floor, unconscious. The blonde woman slowly lowered her hand, the giant leaf cradling Elsa depositing her gently on the ground.  
The man in black dropped silently from his position in the shadow of a large statue along the wall to land beside the snow queen. “She put up quite a fight.” He commented tucking his dart gun back in his belt. “And I didn’t see you two coming up with any clever ideas right away.” He reached Elsa’s side and gently placed two fingers against her neck, taking a pulse. “Didn’t want there to be a huge commotion.” His eyes traveled her body curiously, as if searching for flaws.   
“Garret, stop marveling and help us get out of here. Sooner rather than later would always be appreciated.” The black-haired woman snapped.  
The blonde woman gestured at the plants again and they quickly curled around Elsa’s still form to wrap her in a cocoon. The man called Garret then easily hoisted the bundle across his shoulders.   
“Ready.” He said to the other two.  
The blonde woman gestured again and some of the remaining plants in the courtyard twined together to form a large platform. The three stepped onto it, Garret gently placing the bundle containing the queen on the platform.  
“Hold on tight to her majesty there.” The black-haired one said. “The trip home is going to be a little bit faster.”   
She swirled her hands around the air in front of her then thrust her hand out across the fjord. A strong, warm wind gushed through the courtyard and lifted the platform off the ground. The trio vanished into the night on a summer’s breeze, the still form of the queen resting gently between them. Back in the courtyard, a single drop of water fell from the newly-formed ice sculpture.


	3. Missing In Action

The sun rose and reached its height but still no one had seen the Queen.  
"Elsa!" Anna was wandering the castle grounds having already failed to locate her sister in her room, the kitchens, the library or even their secret rendezvous in the tower. None of the staff had seen her since last night.  
"I'm sorry if you got upset last night." Anna called, peering down towards the open gates in hope that she would catch sight of her sister's glistening ice dress or train. She was disappointed to only see a few wandering civilians and merchants setting up shop. Anna stepped down from the fence and continued on her way. She passed a lump of misshapen ice on the secondary courtyard that was slowly dripping onto the stones.  
"Wherever you went Elsa, did you really think it was wise to let all your ice sculptures melt like this?" Anna drew a finger along the melting ice, rubbing the water between her fingers as she continued her search. This was too much like a few days ago when she'd ridden after her sister, calling pointlessly across the snow.  
Anna hated that she and her sister hadn't spent more time together these past two days. Sure they had both needed rest and then Anna had had to replace Kristoff's sled like she promised and Elsa had needed to clean up the crazy things that had been happening since her coronation.  
Finally they could be sisters again! Not just two strangers who lived in the same castle. They were past all the ugly stuff now, the silence, the distance. They should have spent last night sitting on Elsa's bed, swapping stories from all these silent years, sipping cocoa and giggling.  
But Elsa wasn't ready. Anna should have known better. Fourteen years of separation were not overcome in a single day. Especially with Elsa. Elsa was secretive and very independent, she had been even back when the girls had been best friends. Elsa did everything alone. Sure she was always there whenever Anna had asked her to play or talk but for the most part, Elsa had been a loner from the start.  
Anna continued watching the statue, trying to guess what it had been before summer had started to melt it but the statue was too far gone already. She knew her sister was trying, she had proved that much yesterday when they'd skated together. Elsa had held her hands the whole time, guiding her gently across the icy courtyard, catching her every time she fell. But then later, her sister had flinched away from her entirely and Anna could see the wall struggling to come back up. To shut her out. Anna hated that stupid wall.  
She knew Elsa needed her time to adjust and her space. It didn't help that Anna had been ready for years to throw herself at her sister whenever she wanted and spend hours talking about nothing in particular. And maybe one day they'd return to that, once Elsa learned that Anna had never been afraid of her, that Elsa's powers could not hurt Anna anymore.  
Anna didn't know if she could handle such a carefully controlled, hot and cold relationship in the meantime.  
"Anna!"  
The princess turned at her name and was surprised to see her boyfriend cantering up to the secondary courtyard on Sven.  
"Kristoff!" Anna dashed forward and into his sweeping embrace as he dismounted. He'd been planning to reinstate his ice business today and break in the new sled with a trip up to the mountains. He'd asked Anna to come but she'd politely declined, hoping the day could have been spent rekindling her and Elsa's lifelong love of dropping ice balls from their balconies to the courtyards below. How quickly that plan was being ruined.  
"Anna," Kristoff said as he spun her once then put her down. "Are you okay? Is Elsa alright? What's happening?"  
Anna's brow furrowed in confusion. "How did you…?"  
Kristoff pointed up at the tower. "The palace…it's melting."  
Anna looked up and gasped in surprise. All the icy ornaments and decorations Elsa had set up around the castle the previous day, ones she had sworn would stay there forever, were slowly drooping and melting into cascades of water that ran down the castle walls.  
"I could see it from up the mountain so I hurried back." Kristoff told Anna. "What's going on? I thought Elsa's sculptures would never melt?"  
Anna was watching the giant snowflake her sister had hung on the steeple of the tower. "They shouldn't." She said quietly. It had dripped itself into a misshapen blob of ice just like the sculpture next to them. As she watched, a large section of the bottom broke off and crashed to the roof below, then slid slowly downwards.  
The look on Kristoff's face was the one Anna imagined he'd have if he ever saw Elsa's ice palace in the mountains being smashed to pieces. "Then why are they?" He asked Anna, tearing his eyes from the dripping garlands of snowflakes hanging around the courtyard.  
Anna shrugged. "I don't know but I think it has something to do with the fact that no one has seen Elsa all morning."  
Kristoff was startled. "What? Where is she?"  
"We don't know. She's gone." A thought struck Anna. "She couldn't have run away again could she? To her palace on the North Mountain?"  
Kristoff shook his head. "Somehow I doubt it. Even the ice up in the mountains is melting."  
"What?"  
Sven snorted in agreement as Kristoff nodded. "Yeah, that's why I hurried back. Sven and I had just reached Isen Lake. It almost never thaws completely, even in the middle of summer. But it was completely clear, not a sheet of ice in sight."  
Anna glanced back at the melting sculpture. "But…it's no warmer than it has been since the thaw." This was starting to scare her. Where was Elsa? Why were her creations melting? They hadn't the last time she ran away! The icicles she'd accidentally cast in the ballroom had had to be chipped from the floor piece by piece. Why was everything melting now? Was this somehow her fault again?  
As always, the mountain man could tell she was upset. Kristoff wrapped a comforting arm around Anna's shoulders. "So what's going on?" He asked.  
Anna shook her head, fighting back tears. "I don't know but we need to find my sister, fast!"  
"Hi guys!"  
Both Anna and Kristoff whirled on the spot as if they had been caught kissing but it was only Olaf, toddling unsteadily up to them.  
"Is it warmer today or is that just me?" Olaf asked them, then giggled. "Summer is fun, isn't it?"  
"Olaf, have you seen Elsa recently?" Anna asked. The snowman seemed to regard Elsa as a mother and had been seen following the Queen around the previous day jumping at her heels like an excitable five-year old.  
Olaf shook his head back and forth. "No. I haven't." Sven let out a groan and bent his head to get a scratch from Olaf's stick hands.  
"Oh wait!" Olaf suddenly shouted, making the others all jump. "I don't know if this helps, but I saw her here last night. She made this." He gestured at the misshapen blob of ice. "And she gave me some great advice about feeling better."  
Anna was about to ask Olaf what the sculpture had been but suddenly noticed something very disturbing. "Olaf…where's your flurry?"  
Olaf looked up, clearly noticing for the first time that his life-sustaining personal flurry Elsa had gifted him with had evaporated. "Oh that's odd. I thought it was a little too warm out here…" His nose began to slide out of his face. He absentmindedly pushed it back into place. "Elsa warned me about being places where it was too hot…"  
"Come on Olaf," Anna said quickly, trying not to let her panic show as more water ran down Olaf's face. "we need to get you somewhere cold." She took Olaf's hand and pulled him towards the castle, thinking that the dungeons or cellars might still be cold enough from the freeze that Olaf would be okay down there.  
Kristoff was going to follow Anna and Olaf down to the cellars but Sven caught the end of his tunic and pulled.  
"What is it buddy?"  
Sven pulled Kristoff towards the melting ice statue, huffing and snorting at something on the ground next to it.  
"What do you mean 'something smells funny?'" Kristoff asked the reindeer. "That's just you buddy…"  
Sven snorted again, only this time sounding a bit more indignant. He nudged something near the base of the statue with his nose and pawed the ground anxiously.  
Kristoff picked up the tiny barb that had caught his friend's attention. It was covered in dried blood.  
"Where did this come from?"  
________________________________________  
"An act of true love will thaw a frozen heart…"   
"Love will thaw…" I repeated slowly. "Love." Of course.  
It all seemed so simple now. I loved my sister, I could never hurt her. She loved me, she'd just thrown herself in front of a sword to save me. I loved this kingdom.   
"Elsa?" She asked as I dropped her hands.  
"Love!" I said again. I threw my arms out to my side.  
The power rippled from me softly, the natural worm breeze flowing in to the snow around us, gently swirling it into the air. The ice on the fjord cracked and melted. My sister gasped as the snow under our feet began to rise into the air. I moved with the wind, the ice around us melting and flowing upward to follow the motion of my arms.  
Icicles melted, snow rushed upwards, warmth poured back into the fjord.   
I lifted the veil from my heart. And summer returned to the kingdom.  
________________________________________  
Elsa awoke with a gasp.  
"Calm down, you're not in danger."  
Elsa's eyes snapped to the voice, her vision clearing slowly. The black-haired woman from the courtyard was sitting next to her bed on a small wooden stool, her hands gently folded in front of her.  
"Sleeper's Potion, an ancient troll spell." The woman explained to Elsa's unasked question. "It can be used as a temporary suppressant of your powers. Don't even try, you're still under its influence." She said drily as Elsa raised her palm.  
Elsa ignored her and tried to send ice her way. A single snowflake fluttered feebly from her fingers and melted instantly. The effort alone made her head swim again. Elsa gripped her head and found her braid had come undone. Her long white hair cascaded around her shoulders.  
Looking around, Elsa saw she was in a small, simple but comfortable room. There was a single window high on the wall along which her bed lay. A pitcher and glass rested on the table beside her alongside a potted plant that swayed softly. The room was devoid of any other decoration besides the stool her companion was currently occupying.  
The woman was silent, her gaze focused on the wall opposite them, where there was a small door. It was almost as if she were contemplating how quickly she could leave.  
Her head clearing, Elsa tried to get up, only to realize that to her horror, she was wearing nothing but a slip that barely covered her breasts.  
"What did you do to me?" She shouted, hastily covering herself up with the blanket. This was no way for a queen to be dressed, no matter where she was!  
"Sorry." The woman shrugged, still not looking as Elsa hastily tried to pull the blanket further up around herself. "How were we to know most of your clothing was made of ice?" She waved a hand blindly towards the blanket. "Don't worry, it's just us girls here except for Garret. Well, and Goren. But he'd a doctor and Garret knows if he so much as thinks about stealing a glance, he'd find himself roasted, whipped and frozen solid in the blink of an eye."  
Elsa didn't particularly care about who those two were but this last comment caught her attention.  
"What do you want with me?" She asked. She'd already guessed that her captors had powers similar to her own but she still hadn't quite figured out the extent of them.  
The woman turned and glared at Elsa. "We've been looking for you for a long time." She said softly.  
Elsa shivered. Her eyes were an unsettling deep ruby-red.  
As she looked into them, a sudden overwhelming fear seized the queen like a flame beginning to spread.  
Elsa grabbed for the pitcher next to her bed and threw it as hard as she could at the black-haired woman. It smashed into her nose with a sickening crack, water spilling everywhere.  
The red-eyed woman gripped her nose in pain, her eyes flashing like embers. Undeterred, Elsa flicked her fingers at the spilled water which, to her delight, froze, coating the woman's black clothes in thick rime.  
As she watched however, the rime evaporated into steam and drifted lazily to the ceiling.  
Elsa wasn't sticking around to question her weakened powers and strange captor. She jumped to her feet, dragging the blanket with her for modesty.  
Still pinching her now bleeding nose, the other woman waved her hand and a thick ring of smoke engulfed Elsa. The queen fell to the floor, tangled in the sheet, choking as heavy smoke filled her lungs.  
"Stop that." The woman commanded as Elsa gasped for breath. "It wont do for us to fight, we need to work together." Her voice sounded very odd because she was still pinching her broken nose but the smoke did not let up.  
Just as Elsa was beginning to see spots, a warm breeze suddenly rushed through the room, clearing the smoke instantly.  
"Goodness! I can't leave you two alone for more than a minute can I?" Eyes watering, Elsa looked up at her savior.  
The blonde woman from the courtyard danced into the room and immediately enveloped Elsa in a tight hug.  
"You'll be alright here your majesty, we're not going to hurt you." She said in a light, happy voice as Elsa tensed against the unexpected and entirely unwelcome human contact.  
The blonde released Elsa and helped wrap the blanket more securely over her half-naked form.  
"I never thought Isen would be the rash one…" She commented to the black-haired woman as she helped Elsa stand and sit back down on the bed. "always assumed that would be you…" As soon as Elsa was settled, the blonde turned to the potted plant and stroked it softly.   
The black-haired woman settled herself back on the stool, still pinching her bleeding nose. "Scara…" She said quietly in a voice that held a hint of threat.  
"Oh sorry, let me get that…" The blonde drifted over to the other woman and gently pinched her bleeding nose. The injured woman let out a little moan as her nose righted itself and stopped bleeding.  
The woman named Scara gently removed her fingers to reveal a small wooden splint holding the woman's nose in the proper place. "Need some ice for that?" She asked with a wink at Elsa. "I'm sure her majesty wouldn't mind."  
This comment earned her glares from both of them.  
"Sorry about the rude awakening." The blonde apologized to Elsa, completely ignoring Elsa's icy look. "We still haven't quite got the dosage right, so you might experience some dizziness, loss of your strength and ice powers and quite possibly, hot flashes and sudden flaring anger." She laughed lightly as if this were some kind of personal joke. "But don't worry," She assured Elsa. "your power is growing with the coming winter so you'll probably get over it in no time."  
When Elsa didn't answer her or even break her icy glare, the blonde woman named Scara turned to the black-haired woman. "I thought royals were supposed to be very polite?" She asked in a loud whisper, sounding confused.  
"They're also not usually dragged from their homes in the middle of the night." Elsa said sharply.  
This dimmed the smile on Scara's face slightly. "I take back what I said Theo," She said over her shoulder in the same volume as before. "she's got more bite than you do."  
"Who are you?" Elsa asked, her patience wearing out. "Why have you brought me here?"  
The black-haired woman rolled her eyes. "Haven't you figured it out yet? Did you really think you were the only one?" She asked.  
Elsa just stared at her blankly.  
The black-haired woman heaved a heavy sigh, like a teacher who was explaining something to a particularly dull pupil. "Nature is always in balance. So," She gestured around the room with her arm. "Meet other weights on the scale."  
Elsa looked from Scara to the other woman, slowly starting to put it together.  
The black-haired woman snapped her fingers and a tiny flame sprung to life on her index finger. She tossed it from finger to finger, never taking her eyes from it. "There are four of us," The black-haired woman continued. "each of the four seasons. I am Summer, my birth name is Theonia." She closed her fist around the flame, snuffing it out. Elsa realized she was staring and hastily closed her mouth,  
The yellow-blonde woman spoke up then. "You already know what I can do! I'm Spring! But call me Scara."Her eyes were a brilliant emerald and glowed with soft, earthy warmth. She pointed at Theonia. "We all just call her Theo!" This brought an exasperated sigh from the aforementioned.  
Elsa looked around the room again, taking a moment to truly look at her captors. Her assessment in the courtyard had not been incorrect: Theo was probably about her age, maybe a few months older or younger and Scara looked to be about a year younger than Anna. Both of them were dressed in simple black dresses; Theonia's enhanced only by red trim on the short sleeves but Scara's long dress dancing with the greens and yellows one typically associated with spring flowers. "And…where's Autumn?" Elsa asked, looking from Theonia to Scara.  
Theonia's gaze darkened at this but it was Scara who answered.  
"Well that's why you're here El!" She said, trying to sound optimistic but her worried glance at Theo severely crippled her effort. "Sorry, would you prefer a nickname like Theo?" Scara suddenly asked Elsa, seeming worried that she had offended the girl. "Or do you prefer Elsa? Or your majesty? Or Isen? Do you go by Isen at all? Ever?"  
"Unfortunately, Autumn could not be retrieved." Theonia said, interrupting Scara's rambling.  
Elsa turned to Theo. "Retrieved?"  
"Like how we retrieved you." Theo said.  
"Kidnapped." Elsa pointed out.  
"Retrieved." Theonia replied coolly. She stood and turned to gaze out the small, high-set window. "What we did was entirely necessary."  
Elsa was about to have a word with her about the definition of 'necessary' but paused when Scara violently shook her head, her lips tight.  
"Spring and Summer are strong but not nearly as potent as Winter." Theo continued, still looking out the window. "With three of us, we can overcome anything keeping us from finding Autumn and restore the balance of the seasons."  
"Why am I required?" Elsa asked.  
Theo turned to her then and Elsa fought not to cave under those eyes. "We were able to transport you using plants." She told Elsa. Scara offered Elsa an apologetic smile. "We can't do that with Autumn." Theo continued. "Whatever she touches will die upon contact with her skin." Theo glanced down at Elsa's hand, which was stretched out on her thigh. "Ice isn't alive, it makes the perfect cage."  
Elsa snatched her hand away. "What makes you think you'll need a cage? Did you ever consider trying just talking to her?"  
Theo ignored Elsa's suggestion. "Autumn can be stubborn." She eyed Elsa. "Very much like you."  
"So why not just stick her with some of those poison barbs?"  
Theo bristled instantly and sparks snapped at her fingers. Scara noticed and immediately spoke up. "That's not the best idea…"  
"Are you crazy?" Theo hissed, ignoring Scara completely and advancing on Elsa. "Has your royal education taught you everything except common sense? Can you imagine what would happen if death went down for even a day?" She towered over Elsa's seated form, clearly trying to intimidate her. But Elsa was a queen and was not so easily subjugated. "Do you have any idea what is happening right now because we had to use it on you?" Theo continued, her eyes flashing. A thin wisp of smoke escaped from between her lips but she seemed not to notice. "Cold has lost its power for the last few hours. Any spells you have cast have come undone and the snow-packs on the mountains are melting. It could take years for those to recover!"  
Elsa's thoughts immediately jumped to Arendelle and the new decorations she had hung. Then she remembered Olaf and the statue she had made Anna. She hoped Anna had seen it. She hoped Olaf had stayed out of the forge today.  
"And what about now?" She asked, imagining her ice palace melting and falling into the valley. "Is it still…?"  
"Once your powers start to return, everything should be back to normal." Scara assured her. "The potion just knocked you out for a few hours so cold's power over the land vanished too. Don't worry, the mountains will refreeze with time."  
Theo rounded on Scara, making the younger girl flinch. "Will they?" She asked. Her voice was trembling. "How can we be sure?"  
Elsa noticed a thin trial of smoke rising from one of the woman's fingers but didn't feel inclined to point it out.  
Scara offered Theo a gentle smile and gently gripped her arm. Tiny roots and vines began to snake up the fire-girls arm. To Elsa's surprise, Theo watched the plants move with a small smile on her face. Slowly, the smoke dissipating from her fingers vanished.  
"We will figure this out." Scara told Theo gently. Theo gave the tiniest of nods, watching the plants on her arm grow.  
Sensing the others were having some kind of moment, Elsa nodded then stood, pleased that her legs seemed to have regained enough strength to support her again. She wrapped the blanket tightly around herself, still not feeling strong enough to try to make herself a new dress. "Very sorry Scara and Theo, but I can't help you." She told the girls politely, neither of which spared her a glance. "I have to get back to my kingdom." Back to Anna…  
Elsa turned to leave. She was stopped by a gentle hand on her upper arm. Her icy-blue eyes met the flame-red ones of the woman of summer.  
"You can't leave here Elsa." Theonia said in a surprisingly gentle voice, her other arm still in Scara's grip and covered in delicate vines. "None of us can. We all have to stay here."


	4. The Spirits

Kristoff had never been one to sugar-coat things. Living in the mountains, he had to face reality and face it seriously. Still, in the past few days he'd spent with Anna, he wondered if sometimes that strategy was better left in the mountains.  
"WHAT?! WHAT DO YOU MEAN SOMEONE TOOK HER?!"  
Kristoff winced at the loud voice Anna was currently projecting around her room.  
"Calm down Anna," He began, holding his hands up. "I'm only saying that this barb indicates that Elsa did not leave of her own free will…"  
"OH MY GOSH, WE NEED TO GET AFTER THEM!" Anna was flying around the room throwing open her bureau, pulling the covers on her bed all the way back and sweeping everything on her table to the floor. Kristoff jumped back as she barreled past like a gale, stuffing things into a satchel.  
"WE ARE GOING TO NEED FOOD, WEAPONS, CLOTHES, ARE WE GOING BACK TO THE MOUNTAINS AGAIN? SHOULD WE TAKE THE SLED? THE SLED SHOULD BE FASTER…"  
"ANNA!" Kristoff seized her by the shoulders and lifted her clean off her feet. "LISTEN TO ME!"  
Although Anna knew Kristoff would never hurt her, his outburst was enough to quiet her.  
"I think your sister was kidnapped." Kristoff said bluntly.  
Anna was silent as Kristoff gently lowered her back to her feet. She seemed to be having trouble processing what he'd just said.  
"Whoever took Elsa knew what they were doing." Kristoff continued. He picked up the barb gently with two fingers, careful not to touch the point. "It took half an army to bring her back here from her ice palace, she wouldn't come easily. The fact that no one saw anything and that they didn't attract any attention means that these people are dangerous."  
Anna looked at the barb intently, as if trying not to imagine that the blood covering it belonged to her sister. "Why would anyone want to kidnap Elsa?" She asked.  
"She made a lot of enemies with the trade severances." Kristoff said. "And I'm sure many people are still suspicious of her powers."  
A flicker of pain crossed Anna's face. "Where do you think they took her?"  
Kristoff shrugged. "I don't know but this barb is a good place to start. I think I know someone who can help identify it."  
Anna nodded, her perky attitude returning. "Right," She said, turning on her heel to scoop up a spare dress from the floor. "ready the sled! Let's go!"  
Kristoff held up his hands. "Whoa, slow down there Anna, you're not going anywhere."  
Even though he expected it, Anna's response still made him cower. Anna could be quite intimidating when it came to Elsa.  
"She's my sister, Kristoff! I just got her back! There is no way you can expect me to just sit here while she's in danger!"  
Kristoff silenced her with a kiss. "Yes, Anna, I can." He gently cupped her face. "Arendelle needs you now more than ever."  
Anna violently shook her head, tears gathering in her eyes. "I'm going after Elsa!"  
"Anna! How would Elsa feel if she knew you left the kingdom now?"  
"She'd come after me in a heartbeat, Kristoff. You know that."  
"She wouldn't leave your kingdom now." Kristoff pointed out. "Anna this past week, your kingdom went through more rulers than it has in the last 50 years. You are needed here right now."  
Anna's gaze dropped to the floor. "You went after her last time," Kristoff told her. "she'll understand why you didn't this time."  
Anna nodded. "Go talk to Percy about getting supplies." She told him, avoiding eye contact. "And take Olaf with you. He needs to be somewhere cold."  
Kristoff nodded. "I'll go get him from the dungeons and hitch up Sven. We'll leave as soon as we can."  
He slipped the barb into his pocket and turned to go. He knew Anna was upset but he was glad she was staying. She had to realize the turmoil her own kingdom was in right now. And this time, there was no Prince Hans to leave in charge. Arendelle needed a ruler now, not another stand-in. With Elsa once again missing in action, that left the kingdom in Anna's hands.  
"Kristoff?"  
The mountain man turned back at Anna's timid voice as he opened the door to the hallway. "Yeah?"  
Anna ran to him, threw her arms around his neck and buried her face in the hollow between his shoulder and throat. He could feel her trembling, feel her shaky breaths hot against his skin. He wrapped his arms tightly around her, holding her securely against him. Even though he'd only known her for a few days, already he was so attached to her that the thought of leaving her behind made him anxious.  
"Be careful." Anna whispered to him. "Bring her home."  
He kissed the side of her head as protectiveness towards the girl gushed through him. "I will."  
***  
"Sorry about Theo." Elsa looked up at Scara but couldn't bring herself to smile. Theo had left several minutes ago. What for, Elsa didn't know or particularly care. What did they mean she had to stay here?  
The blonde woman winced apologetically as she laid a plain, long-sleeve black dress out for Elsa. "She can get rather uptight, that's the fire in her for you. Plus it's summer so she's a little hot under the collar...But deep down she has a warm heart."  
Elsa still said nothing. She stood, still feeling a bit unsteady and let the blanket slip from her shoulders.  
"She took me in when I was only five and cared for me like a sister." Scara told her as she helped Elsa slip into the dress. Elsa paused at this statement but Scara didn't seem to notice. "She helped me discover my powers." The blonde continued as she tied the simple dress closed. "Theo was always there for me during the years I struggled to control it. She has the most scars from when the plants spiraled out of control."  
"How old was she when she found you?" The question came out of her lips before she could stop herself.  
"Ten." Scara said, sounding like she didn't mind at all. "She and Garret took me in here and raised me like siblings. Theo and I learned control together." The blonde smiled softly as she gathered up the fallen blanket. "She always hated it when she accidentally set my plants on fire so she'd make it up to me by taking me for long walks in the woods, teaching me how to identify the different plants…" Scara chuckled lightly as she folded the blanket. "One time she let me build her a flower garden on the roof…I think it's still there if you want to see it."  
"Why do we all have to stay here?" Elsa asked her in a quiet voice. "Is this a prison?"  
Scara waved a hand. "No, not at all. This is a temple. We have to stay to care for the temple."  
"Scara…I can't stay here."  
The girl seemed puzzled. "Why would you want to leave?" She asked, sitting next to Elsa on the bed. She reached for Elsa's hands but Elsa pulled back. Unlike Anna, Scara didn't seem troubled by Elsa's icy reluctance towards human contact. "I know this place isn't a palace but give it a chance, you may like it." She patted Elsa's hand gently but did not prolong the contact.  
Elsa stubbornly shook her head. "I have to get back to my kingdom…to my sister."  
Scara paused. "…you…have a sister?"  
Elsa nodded. Scara's eyes widened. She looked like she wanted to say something else but couldn't decide if she was allowed to or not. Elsa waited patiently, wondering what was on the girl's mind and if she was actually going to tell her.  
There was a knock on the door then and Scara leapt up to answer it.  
"Yes? Oh hello Goren!"  
A small rock rolled into the room coming to a halt just in front of Elsa.  
"Greetings Mistress Elsa!" The rock popped open, revealing large rounded ears, wide, bright eyes and a bulbous nose that looked far too big for its face. Elsa smiled finding herself liking him immediately though whether because he had used the honorific or because he had a distinct genuine air about his gravelly voice she couldn't be sure.  
"Goren the eighteenth my lady." The troll said, giving her a deep bow, practically touching the floor with his forehead. His scalp was entirely bald. "May I say it is an honor to finally have Winter returned to the temple."  
Elsa had met trolls only once before but like every child in Arendelle, she knew all the legends of their powers and ancient age. To have one bow to her was an honor indeed.  
"The honor is mine good troll." Elsa said politely, bowing in return. "Please call me Elsa."  
The troll seemed a little flabbergasted that Elsa had bowed to him but quickly recovered and turned to Scara.  
"Mistress Scara," he said with a bow for her that Scara acknowledged with a smile. "Mistress Theonia requests that once Mistress Elsa is dressed, you two report to the chapel immediately."  
"Thank you Goren." Scara said pleasantly. "Elsa just has to add the final touches and then we're all ready to go."  
"Final touches?"  
"Only if you're feeling up to it." Scara replied gesturing to the dress.  
Elsa glanced down at her plain black sleeves and felt her fingers twitch. Calling to mind the ice dress she had constructed for herself, she began to form the ice. She still didn't have it in her to make an entire dress but that was no longer necessary so instead she just altered the one she had on.  
The deep ice-blue pattern crisscrossed its way around the edges of her sleeves and followed the neckline of the dress. For flair, Elsa also made a bit of the ice climb up the bottom of the dress until it resembled a cliff caught in the grip of winter.  
The fabric of the dress absorbed the ice completely and burned the pattern, texture and color into the very fabric. When Elsa ran her finger over the finished pattern on the sleeve, it felt like thread but was as cold as ice.  
"Whoa."  
Elsa turned to find Scara staring unabashedly at her.  
"It's beautiful." The girl said examining the exquisite and unique detail Elsa had given her dress. "I had no idea you had such fine control over your powers!"  
Elsa found herself blushing slightly. "Well…it's a fairly recent development."  
"Excellent all the same," Goren said. He then curled up into a ball and began to rock back and forth. "Follow me." He rolled out of the room and down the corridor.  
***  
The three of them walked down several long and narrow hallways, all of which were lit with small floating globes of fire.  
"Theo's work." Scara said. "They burn brightest in the wintertime. It really helps with the lighting when its gets dark in the winter!" Elsa only nodded and forced herself not to admire the beautiful floating globes that looked like self-contained snowballs of fire. She was trying to memorize the route they were taking and look for an escape at the same time.  
The temple appeared to be entirely made of stone except for the places where vines and small plants grew thickly over them. The walls were completely devoid of any other decorations and the floors were without carpets or furniture.  
They passed a few rooms but Elsa got barely more than a glance as they hurried down the twisted hallways. A long room full of pots and pans and chairs…a room full of sand and tiny glass balls…a room completely bare of anything except a black mat…  
Finally, Goren rolled to a halt in front of a heavy, black door shaped like a large triangle. But instead of opening up, the rock went motionless.  
"Oh…he's asleep…hold on…" Scara gently prodded the troll with her foot. "Goren! Goren!"  
The troll sprang back to his upright form, seeming mortified that he had drifted off. "Sorry! Sorry! I'm fine! Let's go in."  
He shook his head several times and pushed open the heavy black door.  
They entered a large room with a high vaulted ceiling that let in a single slant of light from a high window Elsa couldn't see. The room had a distinct atmosphere of tranquility to it, you felt like every sound could be heard by everyone in the room. Silence was to be kept. Theo was sitting at the head of a wide circular table talking softly to a young man with tight, curly black hair who had a broadsword strapped to his back. They both looked up as Elsa, Goren and Scara entered.  
When her eyes met the black ones of the man, Elsa froze in place. A bolt of lightning seemed to pass between them in an instant and Elsa shivered violently. The man's eyes lit up in recognition and Elsa could have sworn they flashed blue for an instant.  
"Oh great…" Theo muttered as the man dashed from her side and fell to his knees in front of Elsa.  
The man gently gripped Elsa's wrist with his left hand. "Elsa." His voice was rough like he was still in the process of changing from boy to man. But his body clearly showed that he had left that age many years previously. "Your Guardian Garret is here before you." The man said, his eyes on the floor. Elsa found she was unable to move as he spoke, not from shock or befuddlement but simply because something seemed to be physically restraining her. The man drew the sword from his back and placed the blade along his left arm. "I pledge my sword to you, Queen of Winter." He softly drew the sword against his arm, opening up a small horizontal wound. "As well as my fists, my muscles and the very blood that runs in my veins." To Elsa's horror, he dipped his finger in the cut and traced a small circle on the inside of her wrist. But instead of painting her skin, the blood vanished upon contact with her, leaving only a slightly warm circle where his finger had touched. When he had finished, he looked up at Elsa. She was startled by the way that his deep, black eyes seemed to penetrate to her very core. "I vow I will die to protect you if need be."  
"Stop staring Garret, you'll make Elsa feel more at home…" Theo called across the room. The man called Garret blinked and dropped his gaze and Elsa found she could suddenly move again. Garret dropped her hand with a grin.  
"Sorry about that." He apologized to Elsa, his eyes warming considerably as he gently took her hand again. "I'm afraid I'm bound by blood to complete that ceremony the moment I first lock eyes with you." He respectfully kissed Elsa's knuckles then released her hand and stood. "I am Garret and if there is ever anything you need, just call my name and I'll be there."  
Trying to fight the shock from her momentary paralysis, Elsa fought to regain her regal demeanor. "Thank you Master Garret." She thought she might be blushing but didn't mind at all.  
Garret winked at her. "You're in charge here, not me."  
"Great, well, now that we've got the logistics out of the way…" Theo said drily, taking a seat in a chair. "To business."  
Goren leapt up onto the table alongside Garret and pulled a roll of linen from seemingly nowhere to wrap the man's arm with. As the troll began to bandage the cut, Elsa noticed two other scars on the man's left arm below where the one he'd cut for her lay.  
When Goren had finished his work, he bowed to Theo, Scara and Elsa in turn then jumped off the table and rolled backwards out of the room. The door slammed behind him.  
Elsa started to make her way closer to the head of the table but Scara caught her attention.  
"You sit there." She said, pointing at a different seat. "Opposite Summer." Elsa circled back to the far end of the table, where Garret was holding the seat out for her. She slid into it with a smile of thanks.  
"Oh and sorry for shooting you last night…" Garret muttered to Elsa as she sat down. Elsa's head whipped around in surprise but Garret was already moving back to the head of the table to stand next to Theonia.  
"Garret is our Guardian." Scara explained from her seat on Elsa's left. "He was chosen by Mother when he was in the womb and has dedicated his life to serving us."  
A little overwhelmed, Elsa asked the simplest of the many questions currently running amuck in her mind. "Why do we need a guardian?"  
"Someone has to keep us in check." Theo told her. She nodded at Garret who bowed respectfully back, his hands clasped behind his back. "Garret knows all of our secret fail-safes," Theo continued "if need be he can render myself or Scara and now, yourself, powerless with a single touch."  
Elsa recalled how she had been unable to move as Garret performed his 'ceremony' and was suddenly a little apprehensive that this stranger could seemingly render her immobile with a single touch.  
"We live in a world of men." Theo was continuing, oblivious to Elsa's feelings. "A world of stupid, suspicious men who call us witches because they fear the gifts we have been granted. No offense Garret."  
He shrugged, clearly used to such words.  
"Garret faces those who are foolish enough to think they can overpower us the way a man tries to overpower a woman. He protects the Mother's temple from harm at all costs."  
Elsa nodded in understanding. "And Goren?" She asked, folding her arms defensively against her chest.  
Theo nodded towards the place where the troll had vanished. "Goren is our scribe and our healer. He succeeded his father, Goren the seventeenth only a few years ago. He keeps the library in order, brews up spells, treats our injuries and watches the scrolls for births and messages. Goren's line predicts all our births."  
Elsa tilted her head slightly. "If he can predict all our births, why did it take you so long to find me?" She asked flatly.  
Theo's left eye twitched in irritation but she didn't reply.  
"That's just the thing…" Garret said softly, his voice carrying effortlessly through the entire room. "his father didn't predict yours."  
"Your birth went unrecorded by the Isen scroll." Scara said just as quietly as if the words were not to be uttered in this space. "The scroll of Winter. We've been looking for you for years." Her green eyes peered curiously at Elsa. "For the first time, a host's birth was not recorded."  
"What makes you so sure it's me?"  
"Stupid question, who else would be capable of conjuring up ice and acting like a little..."  
Garret cleared his throat loudly to cover up Theo's comment. She ignored him but drew a deep breath.  
"Isen's host can only be born on the summer solstice in the year following the death of the previous host." Theo explained, pressing the tips of her fingers together and apparently forcing herself to calm down. "Isen's last host was killed twenty-two years ago."  
"Killed?"  
"It happens sometimes." Garret told Elsa. "A Guardian fails in his duty or a host is slipped poison. Its very unusual though. Then again, that's not the strangest thing that has happened in the last twenty-one years…"  
"You've noticed it I think, little things that shouldn't be." Theo continued, her fingers falling in on themselves until she appeared to be praying. "Seasons changing too fast or too slow. The Southern Isles had all of their crops inexplicably die this autumn past instead of bearing fruit. Weselton's previous spring saw a frost late into July. Corona was scorched by summer heat so badly that it was without water for several weeks. And these things happened 'naturally', not like your summer 100-years blizzard." From across the table, Theo's eyes scrutinized Elsa's form, as if just noticing the dress she wore. Elsa might have imagined it, but she could have sworn a slight blush colored Theo's cheekbones. Theo folded her hands tightly and leaned back in her seat. "Something isn't right. And we need Autumn to find out what."  
"Where is Autumn?" Elsa asked, looking around the room. Theo refused to meet her eyes. Scara met her gaze and shrugged, Garret showed no emotion.  
Theo paused for a moment. "We don't know…" She finally admitted.  
"We have tried before to reach out to the Autumn spirit, Død, but we have never been able to get through to her." Scara said. "But maybe with three of us we'll have better luck."  
"The Autumn spirit?"  
Scara nodded enthusiastically from her seat opposite what Elsa now assumed was Autumn's empty one. Suddenly, Scara's eyes lit up.  
"Oh wait! You haven't met the other spirits yet!" She turned to the head of the table, tiny leaves beginning to sprout from where her hands gripped the wood. "Theo we have to meet Isen and introduce everyone!"  
Theo briefly closed her eyes. "Scara, they've all met before, we are the hundred and fifteenth generation of hosts…" She rubbed her temple with a hand, as if warding off a headache.  
But it seemed that, very much like Anna, once Scara got an idea in her head, no amount of effort could hold her back.  
"Take my hands." She told Elsa, reaching around the table for them. Elsa hesitated for a moment, her fear of human contact rising within her but before she could come up with an excuse, the Spring girl seized her hands and clasped them tightly. Elsa stared at the blonde as the girl closed her eyes and began humming under her breath. In order for their hands to reach, both of them had their arms fully extended around the edge of the table. Scara was practically lying on the table.  
No one moved for a few seconds.  
"Where's your spirit?" Scara asked, opening her eyes and giving Elsa a puzzled look.  
Elsa pulled her hands free and tucked them into her chest. "My what?"  
Theo rolled her eyes. "This." She sat up straighter at the head of the table, closed her eyes and in a clear strong voice called out: "Branna!"  
An enormous ball of flame shot from the tips of her fingers, the top of her head and the tips of her hair. It clung to her shoulders and head, stretching upward into the air as a writhing, twisting pillar of flame.  
Now Elsa understood why the high ceiling was important.  
The tower slowly boiled down to a fat ball of flames which rested just above Theo's head. Softly, the crackling flames bent into and out of shapes, embers flying in all directions, smoke and heat dissipating upwards. A wave of crippling heat rushed through the room. Distinctly in the midst of all the movement, Elsa caught sight of a face. Looking at it made something deep inside the Queen writhe and shiver but the feeling was merely a shadow of discomfort rather than an actual feeling.  
"Elsa," Theo said, her eyes opening again. "meet Branna. The Summer spirit."  
"A pleasure indeed, to meet the host of my dear Isen." The words came out of Theo's lips but the voice was so different that Elsa knew it was the spirit speaking through the woman rather than the woman herself. The shimmering eyes of the summer spirit closed briefly then reopened as if she had bowed to Elsa.  
Unsure of what to do, Elsa inclined her head slightly.  
"My turn!" Elsa tore her eyes from the summer spirit to look at Scara.  
Scara's hair began to whip upwards as if climbing an invisible tree. When it reached its fullest height, it paused for a moment then slowly fell back into place, leaving behind a distinct golden impression of a woman standing on Scara's shoulders and head.  
"Elsa, meet Livet." Scara said, her bright voice taking on a hint of strain. "The Spring Spirit."  
The golden women smiled at Elsa, reminding her of spring warmth and causing her nostrils to flare briefly as a floral scent entered them.  
"Greetings." Scara said in the same half-conscious voice Theo had used when Branna had spoken through her. "I am sorry you can not see more of me. As the summer wanes, my powers are at their weakest." Elsa nodded mutely in understanding. Livet's form was indeed so thin that Elsa could see the stones in the wall behind her through the woman. The spring spirit faded briefly into a pollen-like cloud but quickly reformed itself to its womanly shape. "But it is good to see a host for our beloved Isen again." She said warmly to Elsa.  
Elsa felt tears come to her eyes but whether from the heat, the smell of flowers or sheer inability to comprehend and witness what was currently happening, she didn't know.  
"Watching them takes some getting used to." Garret whispered in Elsa's ear. She had been so preoccupied with watching the spirits that she hadn't noticed the Guardian making his way back around the table to her. "Generally they are very docile though. But don't test Branna as Autumn sets in…" He advised her. "She doesn't like losing power."  
Wordlessly, Elsa looked from him to the towering fire-spirit and back. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Theo smirk and tried not to let her annoyance show on her face.  
"How did they find you?" The spring spirit asked Elsa kindly, a wave of pleasant-smelling pollen wafting over her.  
Elsa fought to regain her regality that had been trained into her from years of preparation to be Queen. "Well," She began in a voice she had spent hours practicing alone for use in council meetings "they broke into my palace last night, drugged me and kidnapped me." Her voice was entirely controlled and pleasant, without a hint of spite.  
"Elsa here, lost control of her powers and caused an eternal winter in the kingdom of Arendelle and beyond." Theo said drily, her normal voice startling Elsa as it burst from her mouth. "It nearly reached the temple." She spared Elsa a glance that looked more like a challenging glare. Elsa only lifted her chin and gave her a small smile.  
Branna glanced down at her host then back up at Elsa. "But you retrieved her only after its end…" The fire spirit said. Slowly she leaned forward to peer at Elsa. The heat coming off of the spirit was enough to make Elsa feel like she was melting but she held the thing's gaze. She was a Queen greeting a diplomat, nothing more. After a moment, Branna turned to Livet/Scara in question. Both of them nodded.  
"All the snow had faded once we reached the city." Scara said. "We were lucky it was mid-summer so that it cleared up quickly."  
"It was easy once I learned how to reverse the storm." Elsa told the room with a humble chuckle.  
Every eye in the place snapped to her.  
Branna turned back to Elsa, tiny embers flying off of her and vanishing into the air. "You shouldn't have been able to lift that winter yourself." The fire spirit said sternly as if Elsa had wronged her greatly. "Only I can lift the spells of Isen's host."  
"But I did lift the winter." Elsa said patiently. "I'm in complete control of my powers now, look." She turned in her seat and sculpted a large snowflake next to the door, far enough away from the waves of heat pouring off the summer spirit that it wouldn't melt right away. It seemed the effects of the potion had indeed worn off entirely, she felt great. The snow and ice were hers again, they moved at her command. When she finished, she separated her hands and the snowflake burst into a million tiny particles of ice and vanished. She heard Garret inhale sharply and felt a twinge of intense pride. She must certainly be in better control than either Theo or Scara if he was this shocked by her display.  
"Impossible." Elsa heard Livet say though Scara. She turned around to find everyone in the room staring at her in horror.  
"Isen's host cast an eternal winter in mid-summer and lifted it herself?" Scara said, her eyes widened in surprise.  
Branna appeared to be for all intents and purposes, in a fiery rage. The fire spirit blazed taller, her towering flames blocking the light from the window and causing Theo to flinch slightly under her.  
"What are you doing Isen?" The spirit bellowed, her crackling voice echoing around the high ceiling. Little tendrils of fire whipped from her body around the room, filling the space with light and small rings of smoke. One of the whips of flame cut straight through Livet, making her dissolve into pollen again then reform with a tired expression on her face. "Why do you cower inside your host and toy with her? Why do you not face us?" Branna screamed. A jet of flame shot from Theo's mouth. She flinched but otherwise appeared unhurt.  
Terrified, Elsa sat as far back in her chair as she could, suppressing the desire within her to run and never look back. "I don't know what you're talking about…can't you all do this?"  
She glanced at Garret but he had backed away from her, his black eyes flashing. He stood beside Scara and Livet who was still struggling to regain her form as more tendrils of flame cut her apart.  
"How dare you? Have you forgotten all we have been through?" Elsa was beginning to guess where Theo's fiery bursts of temper came from.  
Livet had almost entirely dissolved and seemed to be unable to reform fast enough to keep up with Branna's whips. Scara had started to sweat and tremble.  
Garret placed a gentle hand on Scara's shoulder. Seeming relieved, Livet faded entirely and Scara shuddered as the spirit re-entered her body. Theo shot a glance at the blonde and her eyes narrowed in concern. Above her, Branna followed her gaze and deflated a bit, coming back to her initial height. The flames stopped flying around the room. Garret still had his hand on Scara's shoulder, offering the exhausted younger girl support.  
"How did you stop the winter?" Branna asked Elsa in a growl.  
Elsa looked the spirit straight in the eyes. They glowed like two hot coals. "I discovered that love thaws a frozen heart."  
Her simple statement seemed to pierce the spirit right to her core. "No…no that can't be it…" The fire spirit shrank dramatically, becoming no larger than a dog and burning softly on Theo's head and shoulders. She was silent for a long while, seeming to have withdrawn herself into contemplation.  
"Theo and I should have been the only way to lift that winter from your kingdom." Branna said. Theo nodded curtly in response, her hands curled tightly around the table. Smoke was starting to rise from her palms. "We are the warmth that banishes winter's cold, as you and Isen are the cold that soothes our heat…" Branna looked at Elsa. "And yet you conjured it when your powers were weakest and banished it just as quickly…" Branna continued softly.  
"Could there be some other way?" Theo asked in her normal voice, turning her eyes upward to gaze at the fire spirit as best she could. "Perhaps the trolls have intervened?"  
The woman in the flames shook her head. "The trolls are wise and skilled but they hold no power over our magic. The only other way would be if Elsa and Isen had already sealed their bond and come to their host agreement. As you and I did."  
Theo's eyes snapped back to Elsa and narrowed. Elsa ignored her, choosing instead to focus on Theo's bodily companion. Branna had grown again and was now leaning forward again. She peered so intently at Elsa that she was looking right into her soul Elsa was sure. The Snow Queen shivered.  
"But I can tell just by looking at you that you two haven't done that." Branna said in a voice like a hot gust of wind. "You have never spoken to Isen. And she has not made herself known to you."


	5. Special Circumstances

There was another voice, just outside the icy walls.  
I turned away from Anna. "Wait…what is that?" Terror shot through me as the doors opened once more. Who had Anna brought with her?  
A snowman waddled into the room. A snowman with a fat bottom, long twiggy arms and a misshapen carrot nose. "Hi! I'm Olaf and I like warm hugs!" He shouted happily, running towards the stairs.  
But…but that was…I leaned forward. "Olaf?" How was this possible?  
He stopped next to Anna, all of his enthusiasm melting into uncertainty. Maybe melting was the wrong word… "You built me…" He reminded me, folding his hands timidly in front of him. "Remember that?"  
How could I ever forget him? "And you're alive?" I asked softly.  
He moved his arms experimentally. "umm…yeah, I think so…"  
I looked down at my hands. I could…this gift of mine could create… life?  
"He's just like the one we built as kids…" Anna said, crouching down to pat Olaf on the head. This earned her a bright smile from the snowman.  
"…yeah…" I said quietly. He was exactly like the one we built as kids. That had been my only thought when I'd made him. I had wanted my first creation to be something to tie me to Anna, something to remind me of the innocence that had once defined my gift.  
"Elsa, we were so close." Anna was saying, obviously thinking fondly of the memories of our childhood. "We can be like that again."   
My weighed heart soared. We could…she knew my secret now, there was no longer any reason to hide…to push her away.  
"Catch me!"  
"Slow down!"  
My icy blast struck her. Anna fell unmoving to the snow below.  
Heart racing, I scrambled across the ice to her still form and rolled her over. "Anna!" I watched in horror as a stripe of Anna's hair turned as white as my own.  
"Mama! Papa!"  
I clutched her cold form tightly, as if I could bring her back merely by holding her. The ice around me crackled as it expanded and grew black as the terror rushed through me, mirroring the fear that the life in my arms had already gone out. The power spun out of control and whirled around the room, icing the walls, covering everything in winter's sorrow…  
I couldn't lose Anna. I couldn't lose her…  
"No." I told Anna, folding my arms around me as the memory of that terror threatened to overcome me and drown me in sorrow again. "We can't."  
***  
Elsa blinked and the memory faded.  
She wrapped her arms around herself tightly to try to ward off the sudden chill that filled her. She never got cold. Maybe it was this room.  
Elsa sat gently on the bed frame, which squeaked slightly under her weight sounding like years of neglect and solitude. At least it didn't feel as restrictive as the last one. Unlike the room she had woken up in, this one had more windows and at a level more accessible to looking out of them. It also had, in addition to the bed, a desk, a bedside table and a large amount of floor space. The walls were made of the same thick stone as the corridors. Except for bars on the windows and a locked door, it could be a prison cell.  
Elsa swung her legs, the same way she had fourteen years ago on the first day she'd locked herself away from the world. It was calming, being alone in silence again. Ever since the end of the winter she hadn't had more than a moment to herself. Not that Elsa hadn't cherished, even loved the newfound contact she had with Anna and her people but after being all alone for three years following the death of her parents, it had become such a part of her life that she couldn't let it go.  
Apparently confining rooms was another part of that past that refused to die.  
Granted, she'd spent most of her life locked away but she hadn't minded it that much. It had been necessary, something she'd had to do to keep everyone safe. It was only since she'd had her recent taste of freedom that she realized just how terrible being in a cage truly was.  
The meeting in the chapel was long over. Scara had gone off to 'prepare a little surprise' and Garret had offered to take Elsa to her new room and help her get settled. Theo had remained in the chapel, muttering darkly and avoiding making eye contact with everyone. Now Garret had vanished to find her more furnishings and some food.  
Elsa doubted anything he would bring her would ever make this place feel like anything but just another prison.  
Anna…  
If her sister were here she'd know exactly how to make this room feel warm and livable. Even when a room was empty, simply having Anna around made it seem like the room was someplace people actually lived, not just another empty room of a castle.  
Elsa sighed, a soft flurry of snowflakes escaping with the exhale. She missed Anna so much.  
I wonder if she found the sculpture… I wonder if she's still upset…  
Elsa tightened her grip on the bed frame and it acquired a thin coating of ice. She looked out the window and saw the edge of a forest. They were probably high in the mountains somewhere, none of the trees were particularly tall but the forest was thick. Obviously the Arendelle logging businesses hadn't reached this swath of woods yet. That was, if they were even still in Arendelle lands.  
The bright, burning sunlight of the setting summer sun lit up the room as it sunk into the trees. That would make this the end of the first day since she'd gone missing from Arendelle. By now, people were sure to have noticed. Anna was sure to be worried.  
I wonder if she's looking for me. I wonder if she just thinks I'm hiding again.  
"This is your room you know."  
Elsa turned to the voice and smiled kindly at the speaker.  
"Doesn't really feel like home."  
Goren rolled into the room but quickly un-tucked himself to avoid another sleeping episode. "Then maybe you should make it more like home." He suggested. "Hang some drapes, maybe a little color, something blue and subtle."  
A smile tugged at Elsa's lips. "Surely you're not suggesting I coat the floors in ice and snow and let icicles hang from the ceiling?"  
Goren nodded. "It might help." He said. The troll leapt up beside her on the bed and began to pull various food stuffs from gods knew where. "Scara's room is a living forest and Theo keeps her room at a balmy 90 degrees or so." He told Elsa as he laid out a hunk of bread, a large wad of cheese and some small fruits on her table. "But I'm not sure if they do that for themselves or for Branna and Livet's sakes."  
"Probably both." Elsa said picking up a fruit and nibbling on it, thinking longingly of her ice castle in the mountains. Why couldn't she be there?  
Goren paused in his arranging of the food. "It may help Isen come out of your shell." He said quietly.  
Elsa sighed but kept her rising frustration under control as only a queen could. "Why is it so important for me to draw her out?" She asked Goren. She didn't particularly like the thought of having some kind of spirit deep inside her, sharing her mind and skin. Where had that spirit been all those years in isolation? All those times her life had been in danger during the eternal winter? "I'm doing fine on my own."  
"You are." Goren acknowledged. "Remarkably well. I haven't read records of a host with your control since Ileana, Isen's first host."  
He patted along the bed frame until he was close enough to lay a comforting hand on her arm. "But connecting with Isen isn't just about learning who shares your body and gave you your powers. The connection quite literally links you to the soul of winter itself. You feel everything in the winter, you are every snowflake that falls, every icicle that drips into being. You no longer just create the elements, you are the element. Your powers may double, exceed your wildest dreams even!"  
Until two days ago, Elsa had never been particularly interested in letting her powers grow. Now however, the troll's words intrigued her. "How so?"  
Goren's gaze was focused out the window but she could see his eyes gleaming like he was recalling a favorite legend. "My father knew hosts of Isen's who could build glaciers in the middle of summer, who could shape and sculpt the ice of winter into impossible structures and heal wounds with their breath. One was even able to carve the land 's waterways using ice and snow. Ileana was said to have been able to create life when she let Isen control her body."  
Elsa looked down at her hands and experimentally flexed her fingers.  
"The ice becomes a living, breathing shield protecting you and those you love." Goren continued. "It moves without you even consciously telling it to." Elsa's head shot up at that but she kept quiet.  
"Not to mention you also get someone inside your head to give you help and advice who has literally lived for thousands of years. Isen is one of the more tame spirits." Goren assured Elsa. "She's nothing like Branna's fire. She doesn't tend to lash out."  
"So how does one do it?" Elsa asked. "Draw out the spirit?"  
"Depends on the host. Sometimes the spirit awakens in times of great distress. Others have to be coaxed out through meditations with your element."  
"Meditations with your element?"  
"Surrounding yourself with your creations and conversing with them." Goren said. "Theo does it all the time, particularly in the winter, you could ask her for advice."  
Elsa much preferred to think she would never ask the uptight, temperamental Theo for advice on anything. Not even something like this. No, especially not something like this.  
Someone knocked on the door. Two short raps on the thick wood.  
"Come in!" Elsa called, standing up to greet the newcomer. Garret entered the room, holding a stack of blue sheets.  
"Found these for you." He told Elsa. "Thought they would match the ice."  
Elsa nodded in gratitude. "Thank you Garret."  
"You haven't settled in yet." Garret pointed out, glancing pointedly at the ceiling, floors and walls that he clearly expected to be covered in ice. He stood in the doorway, not moving any closer, the sheets still folded over his arm.  
"Not planning to." Elsa replied.  
Garret's brow creased in surprise and confusion but he said nothing.  
Elsa turned back to Goren. "This meditation…" She began. "Would it work somewhere I created?"  
The troll thought for a moment. "I suppose so, any place you felt particularly connected to the world around you through your powers."  
Elsa felt a genuine smile turn up her lips for the first time all day. "Garret, I think I know of a way to allow me to talk to Isen." She told the guardian.  
Garret's face lit up, his eyes warming up considerably. "Great! What can I do to help?" He asked.  
Elsa folded her hands in front of her. "I need you to get me out of here." She told him in her best court voice.  
Garret's smile wavered. "You know I can't let you just walk out of here." He reminded her. "Against Theo's orders and the Mother's doctrine. I'd be duty bound to keep you from running away."  
"I'm not running away." Elsa assured him, clasping her hands tightly at the mention of 'Theo's orders'. "I have somewhere I want to go. Somewhere where I first felt really connected to my powers. Somewhere I actually felt pride in my abilities. I want you to take me there."  
Goren glanced between the two, his expression making it hard to determine who he was siding with.  
Garret bit the left side of his bottom lip, his eyes darting from Goren to Elsa to the sheets in his hands as if they had something to do with his decision.  
Elsa waited patiently, her gaze never wavering. She knew he was faltering. She just had to tip that falter to her advantage. She could read Garret, he was a sensible man, bound by duty but with a soft spot for those he protected. She hadn't quite made it into that spot yet but she was close she was sure.  
Finally, the guardian let out a sigh and placed the sheets down on the bed. "I'll talk to Theo." Garret told Elsa with a defeated sigh. "She's not unreasonable but she is stubborn. But she owes me one, so I'll see what I can do. Come with me."  
As he turned away to lead them out of the room, Elsa allowed herself a small triumphant smile.  
"Don't get confident." Garret said without turning around as the three of them left Elsa's room. "I don't give so easily when your safety is on the line."  
Goren winked at Elsa. "Scara keeps asking to travel to Corona to see the spring time there. Fourteen years and he hasn't budged an inch on that issue."  
"I know all the tricks." Garret replied. "I grew up protecting Theo and Scara from themselves and the dangers of the world. I've seen it all: the eyes, the smile, the screaming…" He shot a glance over his shoulder at Elsa that was one part kind, one part dominating and perhaps just a little seductive. Elsa felt her heart jump to her throat and stick in place.  
Garret ran his thumb along the side of his nose, mirroring the smirk on his face. "There is no trick you know I can't resist."  
***  
Theo was back in the isolation room. It was becoming something of an obsession with her to enter the dream-like state that allowed her to fully merge her consciousness with that of the fire-spirit. She suspected it was because of the waning summer and her desire to milk as much use out of the strength the summer gave her before the seasons turned again. But she was not here to link herself to Branna again.  
The summer host spun in the center of the room, softly releasing the flames from her fingers. They scattered across the wall, several of them hitting and lighting the torches hung on the walls but most of them hitting the stones and fizzling out.  
Theo growled under her breath, thinking of Elsa's fine control of the snowflake in the chapel. She clenched her fist and the torches on the wall flared briefly in her anger.  
"How does she do that? And at the time she should have been weakest?"  
Kicking her legs up into the air, Theo began to dance in earnest. Sparks burst to life along her arms as they cut through the air. A burst of flame seared across the wall as she kicked one leg high. She dropped and spun and a crippling heat wave burst from under her feet and rippled up the wall. She was the summer, she was the heat and the fire and the winds that carried the rains. A tear came to her eye as she jumped and twisted. The dance went on, a frightening and beautiful blending of fire and movement until it seemed Theo herself was just another dancing flame in the black grate of the isolation room.  
After a few minutes, Theo stopped, panting smoke from between her lips.  
"I wonder if Elsa has ever danced..."  
There were simply too many unanswered questions and anomalies when it came to the Queen of Arendelle. Theo hated mysteries.  
She felt a slight twinge in her gut but ignored it as best she could. She didn't want to deal with that right now.  
As she so often did when she was stressed out, the sand began to form in her hands. Without even a conscious thought, her hands became white hot. Blowing softly, she added air to the mixture until it achieved a thick, molten viscosity that was almost transparent. Her other hand gently pulled the fluid into shape, pulling excess heat from it as she did so. Slowly, a glass ball took shape above her hands, looking more like a drop of reflective liquid then a solid object as it pulsed with residual heat.  
Theo released it and left it to cool floating in the still air. The hot glass glowed softly with red light, casting more light than torches around her.  
Briefly, Theo wondered if Elsa's ice powers glowed with a light of their own the same way hers did in the summer. They probably did. They probably glowed all the time.  
She felt the twinge again, only this time, an unwelcome thought accompanied it.  
'Don't ignore me, Theonia.'  
Theo looked upwards into the dark recesses of the ceiling in exasperation. "I don't really have much of a choice…" She formed a flame in her hand and then smothered it absently just to have some semblance of control.  
'When a host ignores one of us, it only makes things worse…don't you remember the stories I told you about your predecessors?'  
"No please Branna," Theo moaned, letting her head fall into her hands dramatically. "No more life lessons from past hosts…" She collapsed onto the meditation mat she had spread out in the room.  
'300 years ago, I had a host… Belle, no… Nora I think…one of them that century anyway…they tried to ignore me for three years. It was terrible, without their consent, my power came unbounded. Everything she touched melted or caught fire, even in the winter. Summer heat melted all of the ice in the far north…there was flooding, landslides, the ocean itself fought back! An entire city vanished beneath the seas…'  
"Branna!" Theo interrupted. It was like talking to herself. If she was more inclined to ramble and considerably less concerned about time. "Was there a specific reason you decided to invade my thoughts this time?"  
'You need to calm down and think about this.'  
"About what? About her? I shouldn't even be sparing her a thought right now! It was supposed to be simple! Finding her was supposed to be our big break in the search! Instead she has made this whole thing twice as complicated and four times as irritating! I wasn't supposed to deal with a royal! Who can deal with a royal?" Branna was mercifully silent on that matter. "We don't have a lot of time before the cycle turns and we lose this power again. If I can't reach Død soon, all could be lost."  
Theo took a few deep breaths to calm herself and bring the flames in the torches down. Her glass ball had been blazing with light during her outburst. "And Elsa was able to do these things when her powers should have been weakest." She finally mumbled in defeat.  
'Are you jealous?'  
Theo sighed. "Is there any point in lying?"  
'Not to me.'  
"She was our last hope of contacting Død." Theo whispered, wrapping her arms tightly around herself. "Now what are we going to do?"  
'There are other ways we can search. We can always wait for the wheel to turn further and let Livet and her host engage Død as the winter sets in. And let us not give up on Isen. She's in there somewhere, she's probably just afraid to come out after what happened to her last host.'  
"What did happen?" Theo had never gotten the spirit to open up about what had happened to Isen's previous host, it was something both of the spirits and the records had been uncharacteristically silent about.  
'We didn't get there in time. Our partners had just backed out on their roll and we couldn't find the host. An eternal winter set in in the providence of Weselton and Isen's host was murdered to bring it to an end. Their winters have been short and mild since, causing harvest amounts to shrink and rivers to dry up.   
It wasn't long after that that the other hosts died and the cycle began again. For the longest time the temple was empty, no one but the record-keeper.'  
Theo stared at her glass orb, which had solidified. "I know this part already, why tell me again?"  
'Because obviously we missed something. Something important. Elsa was kept from the temple for twenty-one years, a more than sufficient amount of time for Isen to make herself known and guide her host here. Isen must have known the temple was empty, she must have known that awakening early would have made her the Head for the first time in almost 500 years. But she didn't take it.'  
"I thought you spirits were above the whole 'squabbling like humans over positions' political dance…"  
'Don't be smart Theonia…I can make your headache considerably worse…'  
Theo smirked but it faded when her head ached mercilessly.  
'Isen is up to something. She's using Elsa for something. There has never been a host like her before.'  
"Agreed. How can a royal be a host? I thought only the most worthy were chosen?"  
'And those cannot be royals?'  
"They have never been before."  
'Times change.'  
"Well, what does that mean?"  
A double knock on the door interrupted her thoughts. Theo's head shot up. She knew that tap.  
"Theo?"  
"Come in!" Theo called, unfolding herself from the floor. Garret entered the room, followed by Elsa and Goren.  
"Do you have a moment?" Garret asked her. "There is something we need to discuss."  
Theo nodded. "I was just conversing with Branna." she told Garret but her eyes darted to Elsa.  
Elsa's eyes were fixated on the floating ball and Theo smirked as she noticed the thinly veiled amazement on the queen's face.  
'You have your snowflakes, I have my orbs.' She thought triumphantly. She snapped her fingers and the orb fell into her hand. Elsa looked away from her sharply as if trying to hide that she had been interested in the ball. The blonde ran her finger absently along the wall and seemed surprised when it came away covered in soot. Scara had reacted the same way when she realized the walls of this room were not actually painted black.  
"Elsa had a suggestion to help her contact Isen." Garret was saying.  
"She can't go home." Theo interrupted turning away to place the orb gently on her mat.  
"That is not her suggestion." Garret said calmly as Elsa started to open her mouth. "It's actually quite ingenious."  
He turned back to Elsa and offered her a smile. Theo felt her stomach clench as Elsa bowed her head slightly in a regal acknowledgement of Garret.  
"There is somewhere I can go." The Snow Queen began. "I built a palace of ice in the mountains when I fled Arendelle during the winter storm. It is a place of utter solitude and cold. When I'm there I feel the closest connection to my powers. I think I'd be able to speak to Isen, as you put it, if I spend enough time there."  
It took a good four seconds for the words to register in Theonia's mental picture. "Wait…wait. You built a palace of ice? Where?"  
"The North Mountain." Elsa replied.  
"You do realize that is the absolutely worst way to hide right?"  
Elsa's left eyebrow twitched at Theo's condescending tone but otherwise her face remained infuriatingly calm. "What do you mean?"  
"You went to the mountain to be alone, so you built a palace of ice and just assumed, 'oh, no one will notice…'"  
"Yes I did." Elsa's voice was flat and calm but Theo saw her fist clench. "And it worked out fine."  
A razor-sharp smile graced Theo's face. "Uh huh, how many days did it last before someone stormed the castle?"  
Elsa hesitated, her mask slipping slightly. "Two…" She finally admitted.  
"Exactly. You can't go." Theo turned away, barely concealing a triumphant smile. "It's too conspicuous, too far away and too close to the place you are trying to run back too. I can't keep an eye on you, Garret can't protect you and I can't trust you not to run away."  
"Now wait a minute," Elsa implored in a slightly harder voice. "you want me to contact my spirit, I really feel like this could be the way to go."  
Theo ignored her which she knew would only infuriate the queen further. "Goren, tell her why she can't go."  
"Actually I think it could be a good way to reach out."  
Theo's neck nearly snapped at the speed with which she turned it. "What?" She growled, furious for the troll's betrayal.  
"Previous hosts have had great successes contacting their spirits in meditations." Goren pointed out. "I think Elsa being in her ice palace would be equivalent to you in this room. It would focus the energy and help her see deeper."  
"Besides, I would go with her of course." Garret spoke up. "Protect her and keep an eye on her."  
Those words terrified Theo even more than accidentally setting fire to Scara's room would. "No you will not, what about the rest of us?"  
"Well… it… I…" Garret trailed off and ducked his head to avoid Theo's piercing gaze.  
"Oh I see." Theo said slowly, eyes moving slowly from the guardian to Elsa to the troll. Only one of the three would meet her eyes. She let the uncomfortable silence hang in the room.  
As predicted, Elsa was the one who broke it. "If my presence bothers you so much, I'd be glad to take my leave and never return."  
Theo met her gaze with a look cool enough to rival the ice queen's. "It would give me great pleasure for you to do as your told, for once." She said smoothly. "I am not here to accommodate your every wish."  
"I am a queen."  
"As I keep being reminded." Theo snapped back with enough venom to make Garret take a step back. "This is not your kingdom, your majesty. And you would do well to remember your place!"  
"Well you were the one who kidnapped me. And you seem to be the only one really stuck on forcing me to stay."  
Elsa didn't know what happened, suddenly there was a wall of ice that barely sprung up in time to block an enormous fireball. The ice shield slowly melted into a puddle, revealing Theo. Her body was coiled like a spring, the fingers on her outstretched hand smoking.  
"I am forcing you to stay because this is how it is meant to be!" She hissed, smoke leaking from her lips. "The world is significantly larger than your tiny kingdom and like it or not, you have a role to play in it that does not extend to being a queen. You are and always have been one of us and you will follow my rules and obey my commands!"  
Elsa found herself losing her cool entirely. She'd had enough of this insane woman lashing out at her. "You are infuriating!" She spat at the woman. "You cannot treat any of us like this, like your subjects!"  
"You are a spoiled brat!" Theo shouted back. "Who are you to judge me for treating people like subjects?"  
Without thinking, Elsa shot a flurry of ice shards and wet snow in the woman's direction with blinding speed. It collided with the column of fire Theo had released in the space between them and the two swallowed each other. With a hiss, the entire room filled with blinding, choking steam.  
As the fog cleared, Garret was quite suddenly in between them. He didn't say a single word but his intentions were etched so deeply into his face that they were impossible to miss. He would not let them harm each other. He would stop them if he had to.  
"Elsa, Goren, I wonder if you could give Theo and myself a moment alone?" Garret asked, with a pointed look at Theonia.  
Elsa glanced between them, the tension so thick she could have sliced it with an icicle. "Of course." She gave Theo a stiff inclination of the neck then turned on her heel and left the room, breathing hard to try to get herself under control. Snow kept gathering at her fingertips that she kept willing away. Goren briefly considered the humans remaining in the room then tucked himself into a ball and rolled backwards out of the room after Elsa.  
"What is going on with you?" Garret asked as the door closed.  
"Don't ask me." Theo snarled. "I blame her." She scooped up the glass ball from her mat and furiously tossed it from hand to hand to force her palms to cool down.  
"Don't." Garret said sternly. "She's actually very smart and incredibly insightful."  
"I thought you had distanced yourself from all human desires?" Theo asked through her teeth.  
"I'm not blind." Garret replied in an equally dry voice. "And you have not made the slightest effort to get to know her since she has arrived."  
"That is just as much her fault as it is mine."  
"Is it though?" Garret asked. "Have you two said more than three words to each other without having it descend into a shouting match?"  
Theo didn't reply but she hurled the glass ball angrily against the wall. It shattered into tiny fragments and littered the floor like a storm of ice shards.  
"You can at least ask the Mother." Garret advised Theo.  
"I already have."  
The corner of Garret's mouth lifted in a small smile. "She's going to go." He said when Theo gave no indication to mention what the Mother had commanded. "I honestly think it will help her."  
Theo was silent.  
"Complain all you want but in the end, you really only care about fixing this problem." Garret said, taking full advantage of Theo's silence to gently lecture her. "You letting Elsa get to you has nothing to do with this apparent power structure imbalance in your head."  
Theo shifted away from him, pretending she wasn't listening by focusing on one of the torches. The flames began to twist and curl into tiny flowers and vines as she focused intently on them.  
Garret watched silently for a moment, letting his words sink in. "I'd better prepare to escort Elsa to the North Mountain." He finally said. He bowed to Theo and turned to leave the room.  
"No."  
The voice surprised him. He turned around with his hand on the doorknob. "Theo?"  
Theo smothered the torch with her hands before turning to face Garret. "I'm going with Elsa. I need you here to look after Scara. You know how weak Spring gets as Autumn sets in. And I need you to keep on the tail of Autumn. I don't like it when a name vanishes from the Død scroll. We have to find out why."  
Garret took a moment to contemplate his answer before speaking. "Why are you going to accompany her?" He finally asked in a neutral tone of voice, as if trying not to startle a bird.  
"Does there have to be a reason?" Theo said, sounding tired.  
"No, but I'm a little concerned that both of you will not return from this trip. At least not fully intact."  
"Call it an experiment."  
Garret fought to keep a wicked smile off his face. "Come on Theo, just because the legend is written that way doesn't mean you two are actually…"  
"Garret!" She whirled to face him, a small tongue of flame bursting from between her lips. Garret was already in position, ready to paralyze her if he had to but his eyes were still glinting with mirth. Theo's eyes briefly flickered down to his fingers then back to his eyes. "That is the last thing on my mind. I merely want to see her control in action, learn what it is she does to do…what she does. How she does it."  
"Eloquently put." Garret congratulated her, biting his lip. "You should lead with that when you two are alone."  
"I swear to the Mother, if you were not protected by her grace I would burn your soul to hell right now…"  
He grinned, glad she was in a better mood now. Or at least her anger was redirected at him. "I'd see you there I'm sure."  
"Garret," Theonia said, suddenly very serious. "if she can help me learn how to make the flames vanish on command, do you know how many lives I could save? How many forests?"  
Garret placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. "You can't change the past Theo…" He told her gently.  
She sighed and leaned against him. "But I can prepare for the future."  
***  
It took Kristoff until sunset to reach the Valley of the Living Rock.  
"Guys!" He shouted, jumping down from the sled and hurrying to unhook Sven. "Wake up! We've got a problem!"  
Olaf hopped down from the sled, wiggling his slightly slushy legs. He'd managed to avoid melting entirely by hiding out in the dungeons until Kristoff came to take him up into the cold air of the mountains. His snow cloud had not reappeared but being this high in the mountains had stopped his body from melting further.  
"So tell me again why we're visiting your rock family?" Olaf asked Kristoff.  
"They know all the tales and legends of the land." Kristoff explained, rubbing Sven anxiously. "They'll know where this barb came from and most likely, who shot it."  
"They'll know where Elsa went?" Olaf asked, leaning on a rock next to him.  
"Yes, Olaf." Kristoff said, rubbing Sven's neck to keep himself calm. He'd decided not to tell Olaf the truth yet about why Elsa had vanished. He hadn't wanted the snowman to worry the whole way here. The snowman hadn't exactly figured out that Elsa being shot with a dart meant she hadn't left of her own free will.  
"Great! Then she can come home!"  
Kristoff nodded absently. He certainly hoped that was what would happen. Sven bumped him gently to remind him that they would figure this out.  
The rock Olaf was leaning on suddenly shuddered and popped open to reveal Bulda, Kristoff's adopted mother.  
"Kristoff!" She shouted, jumping up into his arms for a hug. Kristoff stumbled a little under her weight but hugged her back, blowing her grassy hair out of his face.  
Her shout seemed to have been the alarm call for all the other trolls. With a noise like a crashing wave, the stones of the valley all rolled forward and popped to life. Kristoff spent the next few minutes trying to get his family to calm down enough to listen to him.  
"That's great everyone…really great but there's something I need too…" His request was interrupted by Syonte jumping onto his foot to beg him to lift her up.  
"Let him speak!" Bulda finally shouted and all the others reluctantly quieted down.  
"Go on Kristoff," Bulda urged him, her eyes lighting up the way they had when they'd thought he'd brought Anna as his girlfriend. Kristoff knew he was about to disappoint them all again.  
"Elsa's been kidnapped!" He told them. Kristoff pulled the barb out of his pocket and held it out towards Bulda. "Someone shot her with this and took her away!" Bulda's eye locked on the barb and she backed away slowly, all happiness gone from her expression.  
"Yeah, Elsa's been kidnapped!" Olaf echoed happily. "Wait…what does that mean?"  
Kristoff patted Olaf on the head, a silent promise that he would explain later.  
To his surprise, none of the trolls looked shocked or even worried. Instead, an eerie silence spread across the assembly like a blanket of snow. Softly, the sea of rocky bodies split to allow Pabbie to roll forward to Kristoff.  
Kristoff dropped to his knees. "Grand Pabbie…" Kristoff was surprised he was up twice in one week. The troll had been known to sleep for weeks at a time, unable to come out of hibernation because of his old age.  
Pabbie groaned softly as he looked up at Kristoff's face. "I knew this day would come…" The ancient troll said sadly. "I just hoped it would be far in the future. Perhaps past Elsa's time."  
"What is it Grand Pabbie? Who's taken Elsa?"  
Pabbie took one of Kristoff's hands in his own, his rough skin scraping against Kristoff's hardened palms. He regarded the barb laying there as if it were a dear friend who had done him a great wrong. "Elsa… has returned to the bosom of the Mother." He said softly.  
"The what?"  
"Kristoff, among the trolls, there are stories that I have forbidden the others from telling the humans, even yourself."  
Pabbie slowly stumbled towards the center of the clearing, the others parting to let him through. "In every generation," Pabbie began, waving his hands. "there are four girls doomed to a life of solitude and servitude: Branna, Livet, Isen and Død." His hands glowed with magic and the air above his head shifted until shapes began to form. Four women appeared, each of them a different color: red, blue, green and gray. "Ages ago, the souls of the seasons were banished to the Earth by the Mother. Unable to build bodies for themselves, they were forced to invade another's." The four figures suddenly seemed surrounded by a thick haze the same color as their bodies. "The spirits select them in the womb and enter them at the moment of their birth." Pabbie said. "They give them great powers but doom them to a life of servitude. The girls must be taken to the palace of the Mother, where they live in isolation from the outside world in order to guard their exposure to the world and keep the seasons in check." As Pabbie spoke, the figures in the air followed his diction, gathering in a group in a hazy building. "Their emotions trigger the weather patterns of their spirit parasite, just as Elsa's fear set off Arendelle's eternal winter."  
The blue figure broke off from the others and wandered off on her own, casting snowflakes around her.  
"When we learned of Elsa's existence, we had hoped the cycle would be changing, perhaps even ending. We did our best to hide her away, until she could control her powers. But it seems the others finally became aware of her existence." As he spoke, the blue figure began to resemble Elsa. First it hid itself in a stone cage then it broke free, then the other figures confronted it and carried it back to themselves. Pabbie pointed at the barb in Kristoff's hand. "That barb is used only as an absolute last resort to bring the hosts to the Temple. They waited too long, Elsa was too powerful when they tried to take her. So they had to use the sleeper potion to suppress her powers. And now the consequences are known: cold ceased to exist for several hours."  
Kristoff, Olaf and Sven silently watched the figures retreat to a large cage. There they formed a circle and swayed back and forth. Even the snowman seemed quieted by the display. Olaf's eyes were wide with sorrow and fear. "Why did you hide Elsa, Grand Pabbie?" Kristoff asked. "I thought you tried not to get involved with the affairs of humans?"  
Pabbie closed his hands and the figures faded. He turned to face Kristoff, Sven and Olaf, his eyes overflowing with sorrow and guilt.  
"Because Kristoff, not so very long ago, it was us who stole the children from their families and took them to the Temple."  
Kristoff didn't know what to say. He glanced around at the others but only the youngest of them would meet his eyes.  
"But…why?"  
"The Mother charged us with this when the spirits were first incarnated as humans." Pabbie said. "Whenever a child host was revealed, it was our sacred duty to take her from society and deliver her to the temple. I cut off our involvement. We could no longer steal the children of the humans, no matter the reason. But there was one family line that remained dedicated to the Temple cause."  
"You don't mean…Goren?" Kristoff had met the troll only once many years ago. It had been late, he and Sven were supposed to have been asleep but the shouting had woken them. The trolls never shouted. He'd snuck into the cave where Pabbie held meetings and he'd seen Pabbie speaking angrily to a younger troll and a much smaller troll who couldn't have been much older than a toddler.  
"Yes. Goren and his son chose to leave the tribe to continue their dedication to the Mother." Pabbie said. "They returned one night to ask us for help in finding the Autumn and Winter hosts. By that time, we knew of Elsa's identity but kept our silence out of respect to the royal family."  
Kristoff was quiet for a long time, letting it all sink in. Olaf laid a gentle hand on his, trying to offer comfort but it wasn't really helping.  
He'd known the trolls had secrets they couldn't tell him, it was just part of his life being raised by ancient, wise beings. But to have a secret so shameful and dark? Kristoff dealt with a lot of tough things but this…this might possibly be the toughest.  
Bulda was looking at him in concern, like she wanted to run and hug him but was afraid he would push her away.  
Kristoff turned back to Pabbie to avoid looking at his heartbroken mother. "When did you stop doing this?" He asked.  
"At the beginning of the current cycle." Pabbie replied, his gravelly voice catching slightly. "Just about the time Elsa was born."  
"Why then?"  
"We suspected something was different about this cycle when the weather patterns began to change inexplicably after the birth of the princess." Pabbie began. "So even when we learned of the births of Død, Branna and Livet's hosts, we refused our duty to retrieve them. And when Elsa came here as a child, I knew that she was not like the other hosts. She was unlike any of her predecessors. Her power ran deeper, stronger, it could not be separated from her."  
"Separated?"  
"The hosts are selected by the spirits completely subjectively. All the power comes from the spirit themselves. So long as the spirit is within her, she can create ice and snow. Should the spirit choose to leave her however, her powers would vanish." Pabbie paused, as if contemplating casting more visions in the air but then shook his head. "But when I first laid eyes on Elsa and saw her powers, the burden that had been laid upon her, I grew afraid. Her powers did not wax and wane as the others' did. They only grew stronger as she grew older. It was dangerous to let her go to the Temple. Her emotions were too strong. I knew I could not separate her from her family, especially not from her sister. The trigger was too deeply imprinted on her. If I had taken her away, she would have lost control entirely."  
"What would have happened?"  
"You just saw it." Pabbie replied.  
Kristoff recalled the winter, the storm, the blinding whiteout that had almost toppled Arendelle and taken Anna away from him forever. He shivered.  
The valley was silent for a long time as Kristoff poured over all the new information. Even Sven didn't make a sound. Olaf fidgeted but kept silent as well.  
"What do we do about everything melting?" Kristoff finally asked.  
"Nothing." Pabbie replied. "As soon as Elsa overcomes the effect of the potion, cold will return and nature will eventually recover."  
Kristoff nodded, glad that both Olaf and his business would be alright. "Where do I find Elsa?"  
"We cannot reveal the location of the Temple." Pabbie informed him."We ourselves do not know where it is. Only Goren does."  
Kristoff sighed softly in agitation. "What can I do to get her back then?"  
"She cannot leave the Temple. Not without the Mother's consent." Pabbie said. "The Head Councilor will be forcing her to stay."  
"So what, I have to appeal to the Mother?" Kristoff wasn't liking this. He wasn't a religious person and he generally didn't like dealing with others on principle. He was a man of action, not a man of words.  
"I have a feeling Elsa is trying her best to escape." Pabbie said, a small smile coming to his hard face. "And if she does… I think we both know the place she would go to hide."  
"Oh! Oh! I know! I know!" Olaf, unable to keep silent any longer, was jumping up and down, holding one of his arms above his head. "I know where Elsa would go!"  
***  
Elsa had retreated to the highest open place she could find, which just happened to be a rooftop balcony two floors above her room. There seemed to be no end to this stone fortress. She'd gotten lost twice just trying to make her way up here.  
Now she sat on the edge of the balcony, letting her legs swing over the courtyard below. Most unbecoming of a queen but she didn't particularly care at this moment. She gazed out over the forest, trying once again to figure out just where she was. But even this high up, there was nothing to see but stunted forest and hills for miles in every direction. Far in the distance, just to the right of the setting sun there was a mountain but it was so obscured by clouds she couldn't be certain it was the North Mountain.  
"Elsa?" For a split second, Elsa thought Anna was calling her and turned sharply.  
"I've been looking all over for you!" Scara said brightly. She danced lightly up to Elsa, a thick trail of wildflowers and vines dragging on the ground behind her.  
"I thought you could hang them in your room, over the windows." She said holding the curtain out to Elsa. "They bloom at night and close during the day. It'll be like having curtains that open with the sun and close with the dark." She leaned closer to Elsa. "They're also cold-resistant." She whispered with a wink.  
Elsa took the flowers gently. "Thank you Scara." They were indeed beautiful and surprisingly fragrant.  
Scara plunked herself down next to Elsa, her legs taking up a similar rhythm of swinging. "So what have you been up to?" She asked. "Do you like your room? Have you decorated yet?"  
Elsa suspected Scara had not yet found out about the argument between herself and Theo. "No," she replied, softly running the curtain of flowers through her hands. "I haven't decorated yet. But these will be a nice start, thanks."  
"Why not?"  
Elsa momentarily toyed with the idea of telling Scara everything that had happened but she did not. She could clearly see how the younger girl looked up to Theo in spite of her aggravating flaws. "It'll remind me too much of home. And of my ice palace."  
"You built an ice palace!?" Scara was openly gaping at Elsa now. "Where?"  
Elsa chuckled, glad for the younger girl's response. "The North Mountain. Every room is made entirely of ice. Everything in them is sculpted from the ice. When the sun sets, the entire castle glows red and orange."  
"I'd love to see that!"  
Elsa smiled openly. "I'll have to decorate my room just like it."  
Scara giggled. "Maybe Theo will take us there sometime!"  
Elsa turned away so that Scara wouldn't see her angry scowl. "Somehow I don't think she will."  
The spring girl shrugged. "Yeah, you're probably right." Scara gestured towards the fading silhouette of the mountain in the distance. "The mountain's not too far from here." She said, confirming Elsa's suspicions. "But Theo, she's too careful. We don't go places unless absolutely necessary. She was on her own with her powers for a long time so she tends to get rather agitated in new places."  
Elsa sighed. "Yeah I know the feeling." While she hated that she and the fire-girl now had something in common, she couldn't help feeling a little sorry for her. She knew all too well how hard it was to hide such power. Constantly worrying about just a little bit slipping through, the fear that a single touch could give you away…  
Scara's hand on her own broke Elsa from her thoughts. "She means well. She just wasn't meant to shoulder this burden."  
Elsa scoffed. "What? The one where she gets to boss us all around?"  
"It's her duty." Scara told her. "She's the first-awakened of the Council. Her spirit presented itself to her when she was eight, so by birthright, she became the Head Councilor."  
"So that would make you second?"  
Scara shook her head. "Oh no, I'm third. We know Død has been awake for a long time. In fact we're certain of it. She awakened about the same time as Branna. Her host just hasn't come to terms with her yet, which is why we're so desperate to find her. Her powers are most likely spiraling out of control while they figure out who's in charge of the body."  
Elsa's heart sank. "So does that make me…?"  
"Yep, by birthright, you're actually the lowest on the Council because Isen hasn't actually awakened yet."  
"Great." She was without power here, doomed to the commands of someone else. She didn't like it.  
"Theo's not such a bad ruler." Scara assured her, "She's tough but reasonable. She's always kept me safe, even at her own expense."  
Elsa was quiet, watching the young woman next to her. Scara swung her legs with a small smile on her face, reminding Elsa so much of her sister it physically hurt. It was clear just how much Scara loved Theo but she hadn't realized that Theo's whole tough act might just be another expression of an overwhelming desire to protect someone else even at the cost of your own safety and sanity.  
Great, something else she had in common with her.  
"Elsa." The two of them turned to the voice. Theo stood behind them. It was impossible to tell exactly how long she had been there but Elsa was willing to bet she had heard the whole conversation. Her eyes darted briefly to Scara then back to Elsa. "How soon can you be ready to leave for the North Mountain?" She asked in a clipped voice.  
Elsa couldn't believe she had just heard those words. "You're letting me go?" She clarified.  
"We're going to Elsa's ice palace?!" Scara said hopefully.  
Theo's expression didn't waver. "Well? When would it be convenient for her highness to take her leave?"  
Elsa ignored the heavy sarcasm. "I don't exactly have anything to take with me." She replied.  
"Good, you and I will leave in an hour." Theo turned on her heel and went back to the trapdoor that led off the roof, still ignoring Scara who now looked crestfallen that she would not be going with them.  
Elsa nearly slipped off the roof in her haste to stand. "We?" She asked in confusion, scrambling to catch the train of flowers.  
Theo stuck her head back up onto the roof. "Yes. I'm coming." She clarified. "You're going to need someone to help you converse with Isen when we awaken her." She smiled at Elsa but it could not easily be called a pleasant smile and continued on her way.  
Elsa closed her lips around her protest. "Wonderful." She managed to say. I can already feel the tranquility setting in…  
"I'm jealous." Scara said sadly. "I wish I could come with you two."  
Elsa could already tell that this trip was not going to end well.  
***  
"How does Elsa do this?"  
Anna slammed the book shut on the desk, sending several papers scuttling off the desk to the floor. With a huff of frustration, she bent to retrieve them, her aching spine protesting the movement. Anna had been sitting at her sister's desk for the past five, no…six hours reviewing what could only be trade agreements from hell.  
Elsa had mentioned this plan to her once and it had seemed like a wonderful idea. Increase trade with Corona and North Melonia to provide subsidies to the businesses hurt by the winter. Elsa hadn't mentioned just how difficult all the paperwork was going to be.  
Requests were pouring in from all over the kingdom of businesses demanding various forms of compensation for the three-day winter. Corona wanted a long-term agreement that eventually would be mutually beneficial for years but the commodities they demanded cycled over the years and cycles were unpredictable at best. North Melonia wanted ice. Magical ice from the queen.  
Anna let her head fall forward onto the desk with a loud thump. The numbers just weren't adding up. Arendelle couldn't provide the amount of fish demanded by Corona because the cycles were currently on a lull. Arendelle couldn't provide magical ice because all of it had just melted. Even with these new trades, Arendelle was looking at a deficit that could stretch the royal coffers to their maximum to meet the requests of all the citizens.  
"Elsa made this look so easy…" Anna mumbled into the desk.  
It had been a very trying day for the young princess. She'd hoped people wouldn't notice if Elsa was missing, after all, the Queen did have a bit of a reputation as a recluse.  
She'd failed to remember however that there was kind of a giant sign hanging (or rather, dripping) all over the castle that the Queen was gone.  
"Where is the Queen?" Several townspeople had asked her as they stood ankle deep in the water left from the melted ice rink, watching Elsa's decorations slide off the castle.  
"Queen Elsa was called away on urgent business to the far North." Anna had lied far more smoothly than she should have been able to. Her insides were still clenched with fear for her sister. "She will be back in a few days. In the meantime, I am Acting Reagent." The townspeople had bought this, although some with a little more complaining than others. Anna hadn't liked the hushed whispers the blacksmith and some of the merchants had had as they left the courtyard. But the people trusted Anna and many of them respected her for the way she had handled the challenges of the eternal winter. But it didn't make Anna feel any better.  
Anna groaned and lifted her face just enough that she could rub her aching eyes. "Elsa where are you?"  
"Princess Anna?"  
Her head shot up, a piece of paper stuck to the corner of her mouth.  
"Wuzzit?" Anna batted the sheet of paper away and caught sight of Gerda in the doorway, holding an enormous box. "Yes Gerda?"  
Gerda, as always ignored the princess's antics. She'd looked after the young woman practically since the day she'd been born. She'd seen it all.  
"These are Elsa's trade notes." Gerda said hefting the box as she entered the room.  
Anna raise an eyebrow. "From what, the last hundred years?"  
Gerda dropped the box on the desk, making the sturdy wood creak ominously. "These are just the last two decades."  
"Oh, well now I guess I know what she was doing all those hours alone in her room." Anna said, slightly louder than she had meant to.  
Gerda smiled softly, like a mother silently recalling a painful time in her child's life that had been overcome. "Just after your parent's death, Elsa worked out a brilliant trade agreement between Arendelle and our western partners." Gerda told the princess, pulling a few of the top papers free and handing them to Anna. "It was truly remarkable, quality work. Everyone on the council was blown away by her plan and insight at so young an age." Anna took the papers and glanced over the calculations. Her sister's perfect script and numbers covered the pages looking like a flurry of snowflakes falling across the page.  
That's my sister, Anna thought proudly. The prodigal queen. And then there's me, the useless spare.  
"I thought that these might be helpful in your calculations." Gerda was saying. "Due to the loss of both Weselton and the Southern Isles as trade partners and the damage caused by the winter, I know the queen was looking for alternative sources of income or exports we could exploit to make it through the winter and keep the coffers intact."  
"I know." Anna said, trying not to let her exasperation show. "Is this all of it?"  
"There's another box, I'll go get it."  
Anna sighed dramatically. "Great…"  
Gerda shuffled out of the study, leaving Anna alone with her worst enemy: homework.  
Anna was far from a perfect student. Not to say she was dull, she was actually quite bright. Her troubles with studying usually stemmed from her inability to sit still and her curiosity for all things outside the gates. Books just weren't the same as meeting someone new or walking around town.  
Standing up, Anna hefted the box off the desk and turned it upside down over the floor of the study. She got a strange sense of pleasure that the well-organized papers tumbled out in a heap and fluttered across the floor.  
It reminded her of a snow drift. Of Elsa.  
"Oh Elsa…" Why did everything have to remind her of her sister? Especially right now?  
Anna missed her sister terribly. It wasn't just the separation, she was immune to that. Fourteen years of staring at a closed door would do that to you. No, this time it was the shear emptiness of the palace. At least when the door had been closed, she'd still known that Elsa was there, even if she never came out. Now, the palace just felt empty. Alone.  
"I thought we were okay." Anna said to the emptiness. "I thought the door was finally open and you'd never close it again. I know it's hard for you but I'm here. I'll always be here, waiting for you to be ready. Just please come home soon Elsa." The emptiness offered no reassurance.  
As her eyes aimlessly traveled the field of papers looking for a semi-interesting place to start, something caught her eye. "What is that?" Anna threw a few papers aside to get a better look at what had caught her attention.  
It was a small brown book clasped tightly with a delicate string. It must have been hidden deep in the box, tucked among the other papers and forgotten.  
Assuming it to be a book of calculations or something of the sort, Anna peeled open the cover.  
She recognized the handwriting on the cover page. Her heart jumped to her throat.  
"Elsa…"  
This book wasn't full of figures.  
"My name is Elsa. And I just almost killed my sister."


	6. Conversations with Ice

I raced up the hill, the cold air of the North Mountain burning in my lungs. It felt so good to be here, to be free. When was the last time I’d let loose like this? The last time I’d created something?  
Not since childhood.  
"It’s time to see what I can do… to test the limits and break through."  
There was a crevasse in my way, I thrust my naked hands forward. A single thought was all it took and the snow formed a fluffy-looking staircase that stretched halfway across the ravine. I could do so much better than that. I ran forward, hesitating on the first step. Would it hold? The water in the fjord had…  
"No right, no wrong, no rules for me."  
This was my life now, a life I would create for myself. I placed my foot on the first step and the spiky diamond dust turned to flawless, smooth ice. I hadn’t smiled like this in forever.  
The power gushed through me, strength I didn’t even know I had rushing to ever fiber of my being. It was…liberating.  
"I’m free!"  
I began to run. The staircase flowed out in front of me from my hands as I climbed, like each individual particle of snow wanted nothing more than to help me defy gravity.   
"Let it go! Let it go! I’m one with the wind and sky!"  
I was the vessel through which the cold flowed. I was every snowflake and shard of ice. In no time at all, the gorge was bridged with a beautiful staircase of ice that glittered in the starlight.   
"Let it go! Let it go! You’ll never see me cry!"  
I was free, on my own to discover this brave new life. The power was growing stronger, stronger then it ever had before. But it no longer scared me. I couldn’t hurt anyone here. Here I could create.  
"Here I stand!"  
I stomped my foot and a thick, solid floor of ice formed under me accompanied by a release I’d never felt before.   
"And here, I’ll stay! Let the storm rage on…"  
My hands traced the air above the surface, feeling every drop of water in the surface under my feet, every trapped bubble of air that longed to expand.   
I called to them and lifted them skyward, adding pillars and columns, icy walls and arches. My whole form twisted and coiled, flowing along the direction of the ice. Dancing in the storm, power flying from every point on my body and shooting out in a wide, cold arc. There was no plan, no spontaneous release. It was all perfectly controlled but the result was completely unexpected. I was merely making a mental picture in my mind and forcing it into reality at the same instant. The power had never come so naturally before. This was not casting or guiding the ice, this was creating the ice.   
"My power flurries through the air into the ground…"  
Everything in this palace was a piece of me. An extension of my singing soul. Every motion added another piece to the temple. I sent a great burst of energy out from the center of the floor. It crawled up the walls and expanded to form a great pointed ceiling, then dripped downward into a great chandelier.   
"My soul is spiraling in frozen fractals all around…"  
Here my powers were beautiful again. Here I could be myself and let this gift of mine shine and expand. This place would become sacred ground.   
***  
“Are you even listening to me?”  
Elsa forced her thoughts back to reality and really tried not to glare at Theo. She only half succeeded. “Sorry, what was that?”  
“I said, you’re making the platform tip. Again!”  
Elsa hurriedly tilted the ice block under their feet back upright, increasing its length as it constantly dripped away behind them. “It’s kind of hard to both keep it upright and make sure it doesn’t drip away to nothing in this wind!” She replied, trying not to snap.   
Theo shifted her hands and the brisk, warm gale pushing them over the land below slowed somewhat.  
“So don’t constantly rebuild it, let it drip for awhile then build it again.” She said through her teeth.   
“I wouldn’t need to constantly rebuild it if you would stop melting it every three seconds.” Her only comfort in this argument was that at least she knew she wasn’t making it obvious how hard she was trying to keep cool.  
“I am sorry the host of a fire goddess can’t stop radiating waves of heat in the middle of summer.”  
Elsa glared at the ice under her feet and closed her lips around her retort. She was tired of fighting. This bickering had been going on in one form or another practically since they’d left the temple. Elsa was starting to regret her decision to escape to the ice palace. At least at the temple she could get away from Theo for a bit or avoid her entirely. The past few hours had been gut-wrenchingly painful. And that was a huge understatement.   
Was this her plan all along? Elsa suddenly wondered. Go with me to make me realize she can make my life much worse on her own?  
“I’m sorry.” Elsa was startled out of her thoughts by the quiet, nearly inaudible whisper.  
“I’m sorry?” She repeated, certain she had heard wrong.  
Theo shuffled her feet and looked up at Elsa. Her gaze was hard but it lacked any of the contempt she’d formerly held for the queen. “Garret pointed out to me that I have not been… the most gracious of…I have not…I’ve been kind of a…”   
“A stuttering fool?” Elsa offered.  
The girl bristled instantly. “You know what, you are just…” Theo trailed off, catching sight of the mischievous glint in Elsa’s eye. She flushed and looked away as she realized the ice queen was teasing.  
“It’s fine.” Elsa said, smiling slightly. “It can’t be easy having a new queen coming into your kingdom.” She wondered how she’d react if someone tried to take Arendelle or Anna away from her. “I suppose your behavior is understandable.”  
Even though she wasn’t looking at her, Elsa could feel the fire in the other’s gaze burning into her back. “Excuse me? What about you? Your behavior these past two days can hardly be called courteous.”   
Elsa turned around. “You kidnapped me.” She reminded her.  
Theo shrugged. “You broke my nose with a water pitcher.”  
“It was self-defense!”  
“Not from my point of view…”  
“You tried to set me on fire!”  
“Yeah well, I do that sometimes.”  
They lapsed back into silence. It was not exactly comfortable but it was certainly a step up from the tense bickering from earlier. The North Mountain was steadily growing bigger as they shot towards it in the moonlight, Theo steering them on the summer wind and Elsa holding them up. Elsa could see a tiny pillar of blue poking out of the western gorge of the mountain and her heartbeat picked up.  
“Oh…there’s probably something I should tell you…” Elsa said, remembering what had happened the last time she’d been at her palace.  
Theo gave her a noncommittal grunt.   
“Well…I haven’t exactly been back to the castle since it was stormed. It may be in slight disarray.” There had been no time since she’d been attacked there to return to see how it was holding up. Elsa feared it had been pillaged or ruined by the men who had taken her from it.   
“Oh, I’m shattered.” Theo said in a voice dripping with sarcasm. “Here I was hoping for a flawless creation worthy of the Mother herself…”  
“Also,” Elsa continued, ignoring the other girl’s smirk. “my guard may be…well he may…watch out for him when we arrive.” She had no idea what had happened to the big guy. But he wasn’t dead, of that much she was sure.  
“You have a guard?” Theo seemed puzzled.  
Elsa gave her a wry smile. “You’ll see.” She could feel the life she had given him glistening still, like an icicle that had not yet melted.   
The fire-girl shrugged. “Nevertheless, I pity the poor soldier in your army that has to spend all his time freezing his ass off up here guarding your palace…”  
Elsa said nothing in reply because at that moment, she had realized the castle was close enough to see.   
The horizon was just beginning to glow with rosy pre-dawn light, the mountains in the distance still painted by the fading aura borealis. The palace she had constructed on her first night of freedom sat nestled in its hollow, the pinkish glow of the rising sun and the icy-blue northern lights casting contrasting ribbons of light across its many facets.   
Elsa was relieved to see that the palace looked untouched by the recent lapse in cold. All its turrets were still standing and damaged seemed to be no greater than what the skirmish had caused.   
She turned to Theo and opened her mouth to tell her they were almost there but the words died in her throat.  
Theo was staring at the ice palace with an expression Elsa could only describe as dumbfounded. Her eyes traced over the facets of the castle slowly, desperate to take in every detail, memorize the way the light made it glow.   
Elsa was almost tempted to wave a hand in front of her face.  
“You…made…that?” Theo whispered.   
Elsa let out a giggle at the uncharacteristic tone the girl seemed unable to break out of.   
“You should probably let us down, Theonia.”   
The girl blinked and looked around. Seeing that they were now right above the staircase leading to the palace, she lowered her hands and the ice platform slowly began to descend as the cushion of warm air fell lower.   
Elsa could now see the lumpy pile of snow next to the staircase that was her snow-guardian. She gently reached out to him in her head, stirring him awake.  
As their platform disintegrated to allow them to step into the snow, the snow giant awoke. Sleepily, the snow pile shifted and lifted itself free.   
Elsa smiled up at him as he rose to his full height and gave her a toothless smile. He seemed smaller than she remembered. Also…Elsa squinted in the gathering light. Was that her tiara on his head?  
Suddenly, the snowmonster’s grin faded and icicles began to sprout from his back and arms. He roared and threw himself at the girls, icy teeth having formed in his mouth. To her surprise, Elsa felt a warm pair of hands on her shoulders, shoving her out of the way. She sprawled in the snow and quickly rolled back to her feet.  
Her creation roared again as Theo took a step back, readying her red-hot hands.   
Seeing Theo about to get crushed and her snow guard about to become a puddle, Elsa did the only logical thing she could think of. She threw up her arms and an enormous, thick ice cage formed around Theo. The sudden action startled the fire-girl so much that her fire-ball fizzed out.   
The snow guard landed a single blow on the hard ice shell and reeled backwards as the recoil hit him.  
“She’s not a threat!” Elsa told the snowman. “Don’t hurt her.”  
The snowman shook its head several times, like a dog that had just climbed out of the water and gave a quiet roar of obedience. The icicles on his back and arms shrank until they vanished entirely and the corner of his mouth turned up in the toothless smile again. It was rather goofy actually. Despite his tough exterior, he had a soft center.  
The ice cage around Theo was melting slowly from the waves of heat the girl was releasing. But she hardly seemed to notice as all her attention was on the giant snowman that had just tried to kill her.   
Elsa jogged back to her side. “Theo? Are you alright?”  
Theo turned to look at her, her eyes wide with shock. “But…but how…how? He…he’s alive?”  
Elsa gently took the girl’s wrist and pulled her out of the melting cage. “Don’t worry he wont hurt you unless I tell him too.” Theo stumbled over the snow, gazing up in absolute horrifying admiration. He grinned right back.  
“Elsa bring friend?” He asked in his deep voice. “Stay?”  
“Uhhh…no.” Elsa replied, not sure if she was telling him that she wasn’t staying or that Theo wasn’t actually her ‘friend’.   
She tugged the fire-girl’s arm and pulled her towards the staircase. Theo stumbled along after her, her eyes never leaving the giant snowman, who was now straightening the tiara on his head.   
“How…? How did you make him?” She asked, still so amazed that she wasn’t tugging her arm free from Elsa’s grip.  
Elsa shrugged. “I’m really not sure.” It had happened the same way she’d made Olaf: without any real thought or effort on her part. She had had only one thought in mind when she’d conjured him up: what scares Anna the most?  
So that was why he had soulless eyes, a deep, unsympathetic voice and long icy claws. He was meant to keep her sister away from her by force and fear, since Anna had been adamant about staying with Elsa when Elsa had been a clear and present danger to her.   
As they began to climb the stairs across the gap, Elsa waved her hand to repair the damage it had sustained during Han’s raid. The huge hole in the hand rail vanished like it had never existed and the cut-off stairs reformed into a flawless staircase.   
Theo ripped her arm out of Elsa’s grip and placed her hand on the rail as if it were a dear friend she had not seen in years. As Elsa watched, astounded, Theo ran her hands up and down the railing, as if trying to memorize the texture and imprint it onto her palms.  
“No…no dammit!” Theo guiltily snatched her hands away to reveal a perfect indentation of her hands on the railing where her heat had melted them.  
Elsa repaired the damage with another wave of her hand and continued on her way. Theo followed, not saying anything but radiating a guilty silence.   
They entered the main hall and Elsa practically heard Theo’s jaw drop.  
The ceiling overhead glistened with millions upon millions of tiny ice crystals that formed high pillars and graceful chandeliers that seemed right on the verge of melting. Every room had intricate archways inlaid with graceful snowflake and ice shard patterns and high ceilings ending in graceful upside-down icicles.   
Elsa let out a deep breath. Returning here made all the stress and worry of the past few days just vanish. She felt whole again.  
Elsa had always studied architecture with a passion and fascination many would often describe as unbecoming of a woman. She couldn’t help it, after all she’d been locked inside a castle for most of her life. Also, ice itself had an invisible, immensely complex architecture that so few could see.  
Elsa’s head was full of patterns and structures. She knew where every piece had to go to make it all fit together. Constructing this palace had been a colossal outpouring of twelve years of observation, study and memorization coupled with an intense longing to finally create something of her own.   
The two of them crossed the entrance hall and made their way up the grand staircase to the second floor. Elsa wanted to check the damage from the raid and Theo was still maintaining her blissful, awed silence.   
The second floor grand ballroom remained untouched from the night when the assassins from Weselton had attacked her. The icicles and walls of ice from the battle remained where they were, the balcony was in shards and an icy wind was pouring in through the gap. The rest of the room was littered with the shattered pieces of the fallen chandelier.   
Elsa’s jaw clenched in derision as memories of that fight came back to her.  
“What…what happened here?” Theo asked, looking at the devastation.   
I almost killed two men here. It was only Han’s words that had kept her from becoming a monster.  
With a single wave of her hand, the broken pieces of ice were swept out the hole in the wall on a gust of snowy wind. Elsa sealed the balcony with a new set of doors and set about making a new chandelier. This required a little more focus because she had to make the ice drip down from the severance above and then expand and divide into an ornate pattern. Not that it was hard.  
Elsa closed herself off to everything else and began to sway in the space, letting the cold fill her. Then she began to create. Even though this time, she had a concrete idea in her mind of what she wanted to make, the act of drawing that design out of her and bringing it into reality was just as smooth as it had been the first time. When Elsa stopped swaying and twirling her hands, she opened her eyes to Theo gazing open-mouthed at a new chandelier.   
Elsa took a step back to admire her work. This one was smaller than the original because Elsa really didn’t want to be almost killed by a falling ornament again.   
A sharp gasp drew Elsa’s attention back to the fire girl.   
Theo was leaning hard on the wall, her hand outstretched on the ice. She was shivering violently.   
“Are you alright?” Elsa had thought the host of summer was incapable of feeling cold.  
Theo took several deep, breaths and Elsa felt a slight gust of summer air wash through the room. “Branna can feel Isen here…” Theo whispered, as if they were standing in a church in the presence of a god. She swallowed hard and writhed as if in immense discomfort. “She’s here…” Her red eyes snapped to Elsa’s blue ones and the ice queen was startled to see them watering profusely. “Reach out! Reach out!” Theo urged her.  
“How…?”  
Theo suddenly threw herself off the wall and grabbed Elsa by the shoulders. Elsa flinched not only from the contact but also from the feel of the girl’s hands. They were burning hot. Where she had been touching the wall earlier, there were two watery depressions.  
“The memories…They’re too much…”  
Theo grabbed Elsa’s hands and slammed her eyes shut. Elsa stopped moving, finding she couldn’t pull her hands away.  
For a few seconds, the two of them stood absolutely still in the ice palace. No movement or sound but the gentle swaying and tinkling of the new chandelier overhead.  
Finally, Theo let out a long breath and her muscles uncoiled. It seemed whatever had overwhelmed her had passed. She opened her eyes, looked down at their tightly entwined hands and roughly jerked hers free.   
Elsa looked down, cooling her red hands with a small conjuring of snow.  
A small puddle had formed under the fire-girl’s feet. Elsa refroze the floor but it didn’t last long.   
“How are you going to stay here if you keep melting everything?” She asked Theo, freezing the spot again.  
Theo’s brow creased briefly in thought.  
“Let’s try…”  
She closed her eyes and sand began to form under her feet. Slowly, grain by grain, it crawled up her feet until her entire foot was encased in a thick layer.  
“Do you mind?” She asked Elsa, gesturing at the piles of sand.  
Elsa pointed and the sand froze around Theo’s feet. The ice melted upon contact with the hot sand but the sand clumped together as water bled between the grains. In no time at all, the sand had solidified into tight shoes.   
Theo lifted a foot and smiled at Elsa. “Nice and toasty inside, colder on the outside.”  
Elsa found herself smiling back. “You think you’re so impressive don’t you? Well so long as we’re changing attire…”  
Elsa drew up memories of her first day here and recreated her ice dress, sighing in relief as the cool fabric of her ice crystals settled back into place on her skin. She left the train out for now.  
She offered Theo a challenging grin as her ice dress settled into place. I wonder if any of the others can make clothes like this…  
“What?”  
The fire-girl blinked several times and examined her shoes. “Nothing…!” She mumbled, scuffing one sand heel on the ice underneath. “It’s…uhhh… that’s very nice.”  
“Thank you.”  
Theo was rubbing the back of her neck and very determinedly looked anywhere but at Elsa.   
Examining the closest wall carefully, she jabbed her finger at a section of ice on the wall next to her that was spotted with white clumps. “There’s too much air here, that’ll weaken your structure.” Theo commented. She ran the tips of her fingers along the wall until they reached a section where thick ripples had formed. “And this section here has been warped by wind probably from the broken doors. You could fix it if you’re going for the smooth ice look, but I kind of like it.” She snatched her hand back and guiltily wiped the beads of water away on her dress.  
Now it was apparently Elsa’s turn to close her mouth. “Are you seriously telling the Ice Queen about ice?”  
“Yes.” Theo shot her a glance over her shoulder that could almost be mistaken for humorous if there wasn’t just a hint of triumph in it. “Ice starts to go bad after awhile, even if it’s kept frozen.” She jabbed her finger at the wall next to the balcony doors, flaking away tiny bits of impeccably thin shaved ice. “You’ve got some young ice here, forming on the edges of the old. Probably from when we had to use the dart on you the other day. If you don’t replace this entire section, it could eventually rot all the way through and crack open.”   
With a wave of her hand, Elsa cleared away the young ice and strengthened the walls again. “Where did you learn so much about ice?” She asked, feeling kind of cheated that she had no way of dictating everything she inherently knew about her element.  
Theo’s jaw tightened. “Circumstances.” That was all she would say.   
Elsa coughed. “Well…shall we start the um…the…”  
“The meditation?” Theo nodded and tore her gaze away from the walls and walked to the center of the room. “Yes. Yes just…just sit here…” she pointed at the direct center of the room, right under the chandelier.   
Elsa crossed to the spot and gracefully folded her legs under her, sparing the chandelier a nervous glance. There was no one here to shoot it down, she reminded herself. It would stay put.  
Theo crouched in front of Elsa. “Now, I need you to just relax.” She told the ice queen, her warm breath washing over Elsa’s face. “Open your mind and think of whatever drove you to make this castle. Whatever thing inside you sparked life inside that snowman outside. These things are Isen. She will respond if you speak to her.”  
Elsa nodded, feeling nervous for some reason. “Do you mind?” she asked, indicating the very little personal space Theo had left her.   
The black-haired girl blinked several times before she realized just what Elsa meant. “Oh…! Of course…” Theo backed several feet away and watched Elsa intently.  
Elsa closed her eyes and tried to open herself up as Theo had instructed.   
For awhile, she felt that this was going to be a huge waste of time. Her mind refused to quiet down, wondering everything from how Theo knew so much about ice, to what Anna was currently doing to why the color of grass varied so much. As these thoughts finally quieted down, she became aware that her hearing had improved considerably. She could hear her own heartbeat, the wind through the walls of the castle, the big snowman clomping around outside and the quiet shifting of Theo as the girl watched her from across the room. And under that, there was a gentle humming. No, a moaning. Someone was moaning.   
Elsa focused entirely on the sound, blocking out everything else. But as soon as she did, the sound faded, becoming nothing more than an echo. Desperate to hear it again, she flung her thoughts outward until they encountered the walls and turrets of the castle around her. The moaning returned and intensified.   
Elsa sank into the noise, letting it fill her entire body and being, taking over her thoughts and feelings. As soon as she did, she became aware of one single beautiful, obvious fact.  
The moaning was the ice. And it wasn’t moaning, it was singing.   
She felt everything in the castle, every weak point where air longed to burst free, every miniscule crack from where the palace had briefly melted in the thaw. The ice sang to her as it expanded and breathed, the cold wrapping its long, solid fingers around her and immersing her in a complete lack of feeling. She felt nothing, not the ice under her, not the dress on her skin, not even her skin itself. She had joined the cold and danced with it to the music of the ice. The softly falling snow kept time.  
She floated in this oblivion, this complete freedom from worry and sense. If she could still feel her eyes, she knew she would be crying. But the tears were just as much a part of this world as she was and here, there was no distinction.   
This was who she was, this was where she belonged. She was the cold that healed and soothed, the ice that preserved and hardened. The snow that made all rest and rejuvenate for the coming Spring.  
The ice sang louder and drew her closer, closer until she sank right into it and felt the curves and ripples and air bubbles mold seamlessly to her flesh.   
There was something there…under the sheet of ice, deeper than even she could bare to go, something was stirring softly as if deep in meditation and hearing its name called through the blackness of deep thought...   
“…sa! Elsa, come back! Come back to me! Elsa!”  
There was a burning warmth spreading all though her. Someone had lit a fire…a fire? The ice would melt…  
Opening her eyes was the hardest thing Elsa had ever had to do. It felt like she was swimming for the surface, her lungs bursting but unable to tell which direction she had to swim.  
When she finally managed to see again, a pair of burning ruby-red eyes greeted her.   
“What…what happened…?” Her voice sounded hoarse. She blinked several times, her vision blurry and shifting.   
She became aware that Theo was gripping her arms very tightly. “The entire castle was glowing.” She said, her brilliant eyes doing the same. “It blazed with ice-blue light. And you may have added several new rooms…you were slipping too far...”  
Elsa looked around, trying to get her vision to clear. She was sitting in a small pile of snow and several sheets of ice were sticking vertically out of the floor below her as if trying to seal her into a cage. One of them had been violently blasted through, a large hole steaming and dripping water to the floor. The trail of steam and water continued until it reached the place where Theo crouched in front of her.  
Elsa blinked one last time and was met with the full, painfully clear vision of Theo’s gaze. The summer host was staring at her, her face set in a fiercely tender expression Elsa had never seen before. She stopped and stared back.   
Neither of them was moving. They hadn’t moved for over a minute. The sleeves of Elsa’s ice dress had begun to drip onto her lap but they didn’t seem to notice or care. Theo’s eyes were searching her own, moving back and forth so subtly it would have been impossible for Elsa to tell if she had not been this close to her. Burning fire-red pierced right into the icy azure-blue.   
In that moment, Elsa forgot everything except the feel of a warm hand on her arm and the way her breath quietly scraped up and down her throat.  
It lasted only a fraction of a second but Elsa would remember it forever. Theo’s eyes darted down to her lips. Almost like it was a learned reflex, Elsa felt her tongue dart out to quickly moisten her bottom lip. Her mouth had gone very dry.  
A tiny flame had sprung to life in her chest, its light softly spreading through her entire body.  
The connection evaporated like steam as Elsa hissed in pain when a tiny whip of fire curled against her arm, melting the sleeve of her ice gown off completely. She pulled her burned arm free and blew an icy gust of breath towards it. Theo backed away from her like she had the plague and folded in on herself, almost defensively.   
The icy breath soothed the burn so effortlessly that there was no pain. She almost felt like she should assure Theo of this but couldn’t find any words that would sound anything but hollow.   
Elsa glanced towards the window and saw that the sun was starting to drop back towards the horizon. How had so much time passed? Immediately, she realized just how deeply she had gone into herself. Hours passed and it felt like nothing…  
Theo cleared her throat quite suddenly, startling Elsa. The girl ran a hand through her hair.   
“I’m… I’m going to go step outside… cool off a little…try to find the big guy again…” The rest of her excuses trailed off into incoherent mumbles as she practically ran from the room, her sand shoes beginning to crumble.  
Elsa watched her go, feeling lost and a little confused.   
Had that actually just happened?   
Having spent most of her life either in the library studying to be queen or in her room cursing her powers, Elsa had never had an ‘encounter’ of any kind with another human.   
When it came to matters of the heart, she was barely more than a bumbling idiot making educated guesses. But…what had that been?  
Elsa stood and slowly wandered back down the stairs to the entrance hall, trying so hard not to think about what had just happened but finding it was the only thing she could think about. Theo wasn’t in the entrance hall but a few loose grains of sand were lying on the icy floor.  
Elsa lifted them into the air on a flurry of snowflakes and watched them spin together for awhile.   
She had never questioned her sexuality, never considered anything other than the inevitable: marry a suitor, have an heir and live out her days on the throne. Her out-of-control powers had thrown that plan a cliff to scale but had by no means made it impossible. The king and queen had always been optimistic that Elsa had plenty of time and would eventually find someone who could tolerate her “unique abilities” to carry on the line. Or if that were impossible, the line could always be carried on through Anna.  
Elsa let the swirling sand-snowstorm drift off into a corner of the palace and die down.   
So no, she’d never considered the possibility that she liked women instead of men. But…when she’d looked into Theo’s eyes…  
That tiny flame was still flicking brightly in her chest, making her insides feel like they were beginning to shine as wetly as the ice did under Theo’s touch.   
…could she be…?  
Maybe.  
But of all people, for Theo?!  
Elsa sighed and looked up into the alcoves and spires of her creation, desperate to stop thinking about such dark and dangerous questions. The sunlight reflected endlessly among the spires, casting rainbow shadows along the floor. Her thoughts returned to the music of her meditation, the power that coursed through her and brought her no closer to her bodily companion but filled her with an overwhelming, confirming sense of self. Of identity. But no ‘other’. No spirit.  
I went so deep and I still found nothing…how can I possibly contact Isen like this?   
“Elsa!”  
The memories just came crashing back full-force as the door slid open again and her very first creation waddled inside. Elsa stared just like she had that first time. “Olaf!?”  
The tiny snowman raced across the room and threw himself at Elsa, wrapping his twiggy arms around her middle and wiggling his legs as he squeezed her as tightly as snow could.   
“Kristoff said you were kidnapped!” The snowman babbled, his carrot nose digging painfully into Elsa’s stomach. “I don’t know what that means but it sounds bad! Are you okay? My flurry vanished and Anna got really sad and then we visited the trolls and they said you’d be wherever your powers felt strongest and I said ‘I know exactly where Elsa is!’ Then we ran all the way here!”  
Elsa struggled both to keep the snowman from falling and to follow his rambling train of thought. But the one thing that really stuck in her mind was the first thing the snowman had said. “Kristoff?”  
“Your majesty?”  
Elsa looked up at the new voice. The ice man raced into the room, sliding a little on the slick floor. He was panting, probably from having sprinted up the ice stairs. He looked absolutely relieved to see her. Elsa couldn’t help glancing behind him and feeling more than a little disappointed that a strawberry-blonde head was not following him.  
“Kristoff what are you doing here?” She asked, dropping Olaf. He straightened his carrot nose and beamed up at her. “Where’s Anna?” Elsa had only known the ice master for a few days but in all that time, she’d come to trust him with her sister. After all, he had risked everything just to make sure she was safe.   
“Anna wanted to come but I made her stay.” Kristoff told her. “The kingdom’s been unsettled enough recently. They needed her there to take charge.”  
The thought of her little sister in charge of a kingdom on the verge of financial collapse both terrified and frustrated the queen. Terrified because she knew Anna had a terrible record with trade calculations (She had once accidentally calculated the price of a standard shipment of Arendellian cod at roughly the same value as 300,000 bars of Melonia’s finest chocolate. Something about tacking on a few extra zeros accidentally…). Frustrated because she couldn’t be there to bring up that story and laugh about it with her while they worked this out together.  
Elsa waved her hand and recreated Olaf’s flurry to keep from replying right away. The snowman giggled and jumped up and down several times in glee as his body became fully solid once again.  
“I’m going to go find Marshmallow!” He called, apparently completely satisfied that everything would be okay now that he’d found Elsa again. He waddled off into the back rooms, calling Marshmallow! over and over.  
Elsa looked at Kristoff. “…Marshmallow?”  
Kristoff smiled, looking like the action had been long forgotten. “That’s what he calls the big guy.”  
The two of them chuckled uneasily.   
“What are you doing here, Kristoff?” Despite her pleasure at seeing him, Elsa couldn’t help but sound slightly accusing as she asked him again.  
The mountain man who Elsa had barely gotten to know over the past few days was bundled up in the same garb he’d been wearing the last time he’d visited the palace. But now that she looked closer, Elsa saw bags under his eyes and angry read streaks of windburn on his face. He’d rushed here to find her.  
The blonde man wasn’t bothered by her tone. He’d seen much worse from her, after all. “I’m here to take you home.”  
If she’d heard those words this morning, Elsa would have thrown her arms around him in gratitude and left without a second thought. But that was before she’d head the ice sing. Before she’d felt that connection deep inside to the ice around her.   
Elsa took a step back and shook her head. “Kristoff… I can’t leave…” She was torn. She needed to go home, she needed to help her kingdom heal and reach out to her sister. But now there was this.   
“Elsa…” Kristoff’s gentle voice only made her shake her head more violently.   
“I can’t go back…they’ll find me…”  
“Elsa, the trolls told us about the temple, about the others, about…you.” His eyes shone with a strange mixture of pity and fear. In the short time she’d known him, Elsa had seen him stumble over formalities then profusely apologize when he remembered he was addressing a queen even if said queen insisted he address her by name. Now, she realized, he knew he was addressing a whole new level of authority. The host of goddess.   
“Please,” Kristoff pleaded with her, his head falling slightly. “this isn’t the life for you.”  
Elsa folded her hands, trying her best to adopt her queenly regality. She hated that this man she’d accepted into her life now as nearly a brother felt he had to address her formally again but if it helped her make her case, she’d gladly exploit it. “Kristoff, look I appreciate you coming after me but really, this is something I need to do.”   
Kristoff’s head snapped back up. “Says who?” He said bluntly, all traces of formality and meekness gone. “Some other spirit trying to put you in another cage? That’s not the solution and you know it. You were doing just fine before they came along.”  
Memories of her meditation swirled in Elsa’s mind. Of that vast well of something just sitting there inside the ice that she couldn’t reach. “But I could be doing better.” She told him. “And now there’s something they need my help with, something that could help me help all my citizens.”  
“They want you to help them find Autumn don’t they?”  
Elsa supposed she shouldn’t have been surprised how much the trolls knew but hearing Kristoff say the words so bluntly made her stare at him.   
Kristoff stepped closer, his face set. “Elsa…I know it’s not my place to say, but…” He took a deep breath, overcoming his newfound apprehension of her. “This is not your concern. This is their problem, something they have dragged you into against your will. Arendelle is your priority, first and always. Arendelle needs you.” He paused, letting those words sink in before he delivered the final, fatal blow. “Anna needs you too.”  
Elsa flinched visibly, her hands clenching. “I know.” She knew she was abandoning her kingdom by doing this, the guilt never left her. She knew how much it must have hurt Anna to have woken up and not be there like she had promised. But there was nothing she could do. This was out of her control now. She was a part of this cycle, if she left, it could all fall apart. But she would do whatever she could to free herself again. To get back to Anna and Arendelle. Even if it meant going back in a cage for awhile and wearing away more of her bond with Anna.  
Kristoff was quiet, watching her emotions flicker across her face. “So why?” He finally asked her.  
“Elsa?” Theo took that moment to poke her head into the room, startling everyone in it. Upon seeing Kristoff, her gaze darkened and her hands became encased in glowing fireballs.   
“Get back!” She shouted to Elsa, readying the balls for throwing.  
If anything, the mountain man seemed more shocked by the presence of Theo herself than by the flames in her hands. “You?!” Kristoff exclaimed, staring at the fire-girl in amazement as he spoke. Theo glared at him, the fire in her hands slowly burning brighter and hotter. But after a few seconds, her glare softened and the fire in her eyes dimmed considerably as they widened. It was clear that she recognized Kristoff.  
Elsa looked between them. “You two know each other?”  
Kristoff glanced from Theo to Elsa to Theo’s hands. “It’s…well…it’s been years…I…I thought you were dead.” He finally said to Theo, sounding like he was accusing her.   
“Yeah well, can’t kill me that easily.” Theo said drily.   
“You…you never came back.”   
Theo shifted out of her attack stance, closing her hands around the flames to smoother them. Smoke leaked out from between her fingers. “No one wanted me.” She said quietly, coiled tensely in on herself.  
The silence lingered in the room.   
Finally, Kristoff turned back to Elsa. “Elsa…” He began, glancing at Theo. “we need to take you home. Anna’s devastated without you, you know? She just got you back and this feels like she’s lost you all over again.”  
Elsa could feel the truth of Kristoff’s words twisting into her heart but she was determined not to let the pain show on her face.  
“I can’t…” She began to protest but was cut off by Theo.  
“Who’s Anna?”  
“My little sister.”  
Theo’s face fell, confusion melting off of her features and solidifying again as the hard mask of realization. “Go.” She wasn’t speaking to Kristoff.   
“What?”  
“I was right,” Theo commented, gesturing around the ice atrium. “this place is too conspicuous. Someone’s already found us, imagine how quickly others will come.”  
“But you said…”  
Theonia glared, her eyes blazing as only they could. “Go home, Elsa.” She turned away from the ice queen and Kristoff, her shoulders and neck tightening.   
“Why now?” Elsa asked.   
“Keep trying to contact Isen.” Theo said, completely ignoring Elsa’s question. Her hands closed into fists. “Promise me that. Don’t give up until you speak to her.”  
“Why the sudden change of heart?”  
Theo bristled but no flames jumped from her fingers. “Just go!”   
Elsa had a sudden desire to pull the girl back to face her, to force Theo to stare into her eyes again so she could see why she was acting so strangely. Her fingers twitched towards the action but Theonia saw it and flinched away from Elsa.   
“Leave!” She roared, and a brief blast of heat swept through the palace, making the occupants flinch and the hanging decorations tremble and sweat. “The Mother commands that you return to your kingdom!”  
Then with a sound like a howling hurricane, a warm tornado whipped through the hall, picked up the summer host and deposited her at the top of the grand staircase. Without a backward glance, Theo vanished up the icy stairs to the upper floor.  
Kristoff let out a long, low breath. “Wow. She’s…changed.”  
Elsa turned to him but found she had nothing to say.   
Kristoff tilted his head back towards the entrance to the palace. “So are we going or…?”   
“Yes.” Elsa glanced upward towards the recesses of the palace briefly. “We’re leaving.”  
***  
Theo remained alone in the ice palace as the sled pulled by Sven containing Elsa, Kristoff and Olaf headed back towards Arendelle. She was standing in the second floor ballroom again, underneath where the new chandelier hung, glittering in the light of the dying sun.  
It truly was a work of art. Up close, each hanging bangle fell in a perfect teardrop of ice, looking ready to drip from the heavens and splash upon the floor. But from a distance, the entire thing resembled a beautiful snowflake, dangling precariously above a perfectly reflective surface. When the sunlight hit it, it changed colors rapidly and unpredictably.   
This entire palace was like that.  
From the moment her eyes had first gazed upon it, Theo was paralyzed by the beauty around her. Being inside was like being under the ice again. Cut off from the world, in complete isolation, her senses at once engaged by the complexity around her and soothed by the simplicity of the ice.   
Theo’s finger ghosted past an archway inlaid with miniscule snowflakes, each unique. A tiny moan escaped her lips. She dared not touch them, lest she make them melt into obscurity.  
Theo’s love affair with ice was an unfortunate circumstance of her backwards life before she had discovered the spirit living within her and the fate that had been written for her because of it.   
She loved the ice, its many facets and folds, the way it simultaneously reflected everything from its past and played an integral role in the shape of the future.   
Everything about it completely contrary to everything she could do. Everything she touched was ruined. Fire destroyed all. Occasionally, the heat transformed what it destroyed, like how she formed glass orbs from her sand. Ice could destroy too. But ice eventually melted. Water evaporated. Fire only burned. And the scars remained forever.  
The ground under her feet had begun to shine wetly as her agitation bled through in heat waves.   
Theo crafted herself a sand platform and lifted herself free of the ice. She floated under the chandelier, gazing up at the endless patterns upon patterns. She couldn’t stay here, not while she was this strong and out of control. She’d melt this entire beautiful creation. She should probably just go back to the temple.  
But she couldn’t bring herself to leave yet. She hovered in the recesses of the castle, drinking in the familiarity and novelty of the ice she had missed so.  
Truth be told, she had not asked the Mother for permission to send Elsa back. It had just been something she had decided in that moment, with no input from Branna and no silent, instantaneous prayer to that other voice that hung around her shoulders and ears like a scarf and spoke its will at the most inopportune moments.   
Why did you let her go if it was not the Mother’s command…?  
“She’s been silent on the entire matter of Elsa.” Theo told Branna tiredly. The Mother refused to speak directly to her children, preferring instead to offer her voice of command only to the host of the first awakened: the Head Councilor.   
So you take her fate on yourself?  
“What else can I do?”   
Stay. Keep her under watch. The way you said you would.  
Her fist clenched. “I can’t be around her right now…”  
Theonia. Do not let this revelation or whatever you think you are feeling cloud your judgment. Do what must be done…what you know has to be done…what is required…  
The sand under her feet had fused under the heat of her stress and formed a great glass sheet. Curls of smoke drifted from the edges and every so often, a flame would briefly burst to life. “No, Branna!” Theo shouted, forcefully containing the heat as close to her body as possible so that she would not damage the ice around her. “This does not concern you and it never will! For once, keep out of my head!” A great crack split the glass sheet.  
And for the first time since she had awakened, the fire spirit was blissfully silent as Theo fell to her knees on the splintering glass, breathed deeply and tried to keep the burning tears from sliding down her face.  
***  
Anna hadn’t slept all night.   
The princess-turned-Acting-Regent had stumbled out of the royal office several hours after dawn, gently brushing away Gerda’s offer to draw her a bath, saying she needed to look something up in the library for the trade records. She’d spent all night reading reports, sorting them based on priority and trying to make sense of years worth of her sister’s careful, beautiful calculations that seemed just as complex and unique as the snowflakes Elsa created. The whole night, she’d kept the small brown book tucked out of sight between her legs.  
Now she was trying to find somewhere to read it in private, somewhere where none of the staff would happen to find her should any more royal business come up.   
Anna descended the staircase to the main floor, the book clasped tightly against her chest. She felt like she was sneaking around. She didn’t want anyone else to know she was holding a book of Elsa’s secrets.   
Anna fingered the small book nervously. It had effectively been handed to her. And Elsa had promised there would be no more closed doors. So she shouldn’t feel any remorse about reading it right? Anna had a right to know. Especially since the quick glimpse she’d gotten last night had imprinted itself in her brain and across her heart. I just almost killed my sister…  
What could that possibly mean?   
All the same, she felt like she was holding a piece of her sister’s soul in her hand. It felt like something unbelievably fragile and precious, a piece of her sister that Elsa had broken off and hidden away because of the pain of carrying it around. Anna wanted to know her sister’s pain. She only hoped that it was something she could handle. She had no idea where her relationship with her sister currently stood but if this could help…  
Anna rounded a corner, walking a little too fast without much regard to where she was going. Her shoulder hit something, Elsa’s book flying out of her grip as she stumbled.  
“I do apologize…”  
Before Anna could react, an auburn head of hair crossed her field of vision, reaching for the book.  
Anna froze. No, not him. How could he be here?  
The man straightened up, holding out the book for Anna.  
“Here you go.”  
It took Anna’s sleep-deprived mind several seconds to realize that she was not looking at Prince Hans but rather, someone slightly older, with blue eyes and a thin beard.  
She snatched the book back, mumbling a quiet thank you.   
The man bowed considerately to her. “Prince Christian of the Southern Isles, my lady. Fifth in line to the throne.” He straightened up and offered her the same smile Hans had given her that a mere five days ago had made her swoon. “I was told the queen was expecting me?”  
Anna bristled, holding the book tighter. “Who told you that?” She demanded, not even bothering to introduce herself as she was fairly certain he already knew who she was.  
If the prince was surprised by her lack of manners, he hid it well. “Your steward? Kai, I believe the fellow’s name was?”  
Anna nodded. “Yes.” She said nothing else, letting the silence hang uncomfortably.  
Prince Christian cleared his throat self-consciously and played with his sword belt. He was built a little larger than Hans and had the air about him of a gentle giant who was acutely aware of his own strength. “Well if she’d busy now, I can always…”  
“The coronation was five days ago.” Anna interrupted him, not feeling at all guilty. “I’m afraid all our accommodations have expired and we will be unable to entertain you.” She didn’t care that she was being rude to a guest. As far she was concerned, anyone from the Southern Isles was little more than dirt.  
Prince Christian smiled courteously, his perfect court manners were starting to annoy Anna. “I am not here for pleasure my lady. Far from it. My ship was late for the coronation, I arrived only this morning…there was a hell of a storm.”   
“So why are you here now?” Anna asked, shuffling her feet but not breaking eye contact.  
The Prince’s gaze darkened and Anna immediately experienced nostalgia of the moment Hans had locked her in the drawing room to die. Apparently, evil facial expressions were something all the Princes of the Isles shared. “Well, after I received the queen’s message about my little brother’s behavior, I hurried here hoping some kind of agreement could be made. Her Highness told me we could meet as soon as I docked.”  
Elsa spoke to the Southern Isles? When? Although logically, Anna knew that her sister probably had a perfectly reasonable explanation for this, she couldn’t help the tiny flare of betrayal that took that opportunity to burst to life in her stomach.  
“What sort of agreement?” She asked.  
“Financial.” Prince Christian replied. “We would not like my baby brother’s unfortunate behavior to ruin the relationship between our two kingdoms.”  
“Well I’m afraid her majesty has been up all night reviewing trade agreements and local issues.” Anna told him. It wasn’t exactly a lie. At the moment, Anna was acting queen and she had been up all night. And she wasn’t getting to sleep anytime soon. Not while the book in her hands remained unread. “She will be unable to meet with you today or tomorrow as she is otherwise occupied.” I just wish I knew where. Anna thought sadly to herself.  
Prince Christian inclined his head respectfully. “I understand. My men and I will retire to the inn we are staying in. Please do have your steward send for us at the queen’s earliest convenience.” He turned around and made his way back towards the entrance hall. Anna watched him go, her heart sinking.  
Great, the Southern Isles wanted to make a deal of some kind.  
Personally, Anna wanted to sock this prince in the jaw as well and send him on his way with damaged pride and an icicle in his pants. But Elsa had called this meeting, Elsa knew that severing all ties with the Isles could very well lead Arendelle to financial ruin. Elsa wouldn’t let emotional reservations towards the Princes of the Isles get in the way of providing for her people. Which is why Elsa was the queen and Anna was the stand-in.   
Elsa. Anna’s exhaustion returned full force as she thought of her sister for the millionth time. The only reason she’d pushed through all the paperwork was for her sister. Some part of her had convinced herself that if she could just figure out this whole economic mess, Elsa would come back, smiling and beaming with pride and gratitude and promise her she would never leave again.  
But here she was, sleep-deprived, no closer to a solution, plagued by another prince of the Southern Isles and about to read her sister’s book full of dark secrets.  
Anna hurried on her way, thinking perhaps that the kitchen would be nice and empty at this time of the day and she’d be able to cozy up somewhere with a few cookies and dive deeper into her sister’s secret book, safely out of the way of royal duties and prying servant eyes.   
She pushed her way quietly into the kitchens, not making a sound. Years of secret raids on the kitchens both with and without Elsa had taught her the stealth skills necessary to navigate the creaky, haphazard-filled kitchen.   
As Anna had predicted, the kitchen was empty, the servants having finished their breakfast and gone off to do their chores and the royal chef having retired until lunchtime.  
Anna grinned and made her way over to the pantry where the tin with her favorite shortbread cookies were kept. Finally, time alone with the book!  
“What the…?” As she pulled open the door to the pantry, someone came tumbling out.   
Anna’s first impression was that it was an animal because it was just so dirty and its hair stuck up every which way. But as the thing stumbled, dropping several dried fruits and a loaf of bread, she realized it was human.  
“Who are you?”  
The grubby-looking boy’s eyes darted to the door and he made a dash around Anna towards freedom. He would have escaped too, if Anna hadn’t started moving the moment she saw his eyes move. Anna caught him around the middle and pushed him back into the room.   
Although Anna hadn’t pushed him very hard, the boy fell backward and landed hard on his bum, his legs spread wide. Several more dried fruits tumbled from the recesses of his tunic. “Please don’t have the queen freeze me!” He begged Anna, his eyes watering. “I don’t want to lose any of my fingers!”  
“Why would she freeze you?” Anna asked him, reaching out a hand to pat his shoulder.  
He flinched away from her, holding his dirty hands in front of his mouth like he expected to be hit. “’cause I stole from her!” He wailed. “I’m sorry! I’m sorry!” He began to cry in earnest, his thin shoulders shaking.   
Anna sat back on her heels and took a good look at the boy. He clearly was not one of the servants, nor any of the servants’ children. He was far too dirty and haphazardly dressed to have anything to do with the palace. His shoes were two different sizes and the tunic he was wearing was at least three sizes too big for him and looked like it had already been thoroughly loved and then discarded by its owner. He had no shirt. He was younger than she expected him to be. He couldn’t have been much older than six.   
As the poor boy sat there, shaking in fear and desperation, tears tracing tracks through the mud on his face, Anna felt her heart go out to him.  
“Is that all you took?” She asked him, gesturing at the fruits scattered around the floor.  
The boy gulped and nodded, refusing to meet her eyes.   
Anna grinned. “Well then, you have to try the chocolate!”  
He looked up in surprise. Anna winked and crossed to the cupboard opposite the fireplace. Inside, hidden behind rows of flour and yeast, Anna kept her secret supply of emergency chocolate. This definitely counted as an emergency.   
She broke off a generous piece, split it in half and walked back over to the boy.  
“Elsa wont freeze you.” She told him.  
He wiped his nose noisily. “Howdyou know?”  
Anna gave him her warmest smile. “Because I wont let her. And Elsa doesn’t just go around freezing people! She’s much to kind.”  
The boy blinked in surprise. “Wait…are you Princess Anna?”  
She handed him the chocolate before replying. “That’s me.”  
He held the chocolate like it was a priceless gift he’d never dream of receiving. “Wow…you’re even prettier than he says!”  
Anna blushed slightly. “Then who says?”  
“My brother.” The boy told her, folding his legs to get more comfortable. “He’s sick, so I’m stealing food for him. He always says Princess Anna has hair like crackling flames and eyes the color of the harbor!”  
Anna joined him on the floor, biting her own piece of chocolate. She placed the book carefully in her lap.  
“Where are you parents?” She asked him gently.  
The boy didn’t answer. He gave the chocolate an experimental lick and his eyes lit up. He took an enormous bite, smearing chocolate across his cheek.  
Anna giggled at his complete abandon so similar to her own and found her laughter was not alone. Although he was young and had obviously seen hard times Anna could never dream of, his laugh was that of a child. Young and hopeful, bursting with potential.   
Anna was glad he’d calmed down and warmed up to her. Anna had that effect on people. Her sister inspired both awe and fear. She inspired trust and love.   
The boy shyly ducked his head and absorbed himself once again in the treat, as if he’d only just realized he was laughing with the ‘beautiful’ Princess Anna.  
Anna looked him up and down again as she nibbled on her chocolate. “What’s your name?” She asked the boy as he devoured the chocolate.  
“Dunnot have one miss.” He mumbled, eyes on the floor.   
A bad liar herself, Anna knew all the signs children displayed when they were lying.   
“Alright then, I think from now on I’ll call you Dagrun.” Anna told him, choosing a name from one of her favorite stories of a brave prince at war.   
The boy shrugged; he didn’t care what he was called. “Alright miss…”   
“Where do you live Dagrun?” Anna asked the boy kindly, polishing off her share of chocolate.  
The boy wiped chocolate off his cheek then sucked on his hand to get as much of it as he could.  
“Wherever I can, Princess.”  
So he was a street orphan. Anna had suspected as much from his clothes. Arendelle had several dozen such children running around. Most were from poor families or the children of castle servants but a few were orphans, children of shipwrecked sailors or slave runaways from neighboring kingdoms.  
Anna leaned forward a little twinkle in her eye as the plan solidified in her mind. “I have a little job for you.”


	7. Return to Arendelle

The four scrolls of the spirits were not kept in the library.   
Not by choice, you’ll understand. Goren would have much preferred it if the important documents could reside somewhere easily within reach so he wouldn’t need to waste so much time and energy searching for them.   
It was probably a good thing the scrolls could move; the secrets and history they contained were powerful enough to topple empires and crush the mountains to powder. Best that those never have a concrete owner.   
Still, was it too much to ask that they stop turning up in inconvenient ways?  
The red scroll of Branna had once had to be fished out of the fireplace with a long stick in order for Goren to read the flame-proof document. Livet’s scroll had once vanished for an entire year then suddenly popped back into existence on the entrance hall table like it had been there all along.   
“…And so this here…that’s…what does that mean?”  
Goren, Garret and Scara had managed to recover the Død scroll from under a flowerpot in Scara’s garden and the Isen scroll from out by the well and taken them to the library for review.   
Normally, hosts and the guardians were not allowed to read the scrolls, lest they read too far into the past and learn secrets even the spirits were often kept in the dark about.   
But Goren had already spent countless days sitting up with Theonia studying these very same scrolls and countless books searching for clues. So if Scara and Garret were willing to help him pour over countless possibilities of the cryptic words, he would only be happy for the help.   
Goren rolled down the table and peered at the thin stretch of words Scara had indicated with her finger.  
“The name of the last host for Isen, a little girl born far to the east named Mirabelle.” He told her, reading the ancient runes with ease.  
Scara frowned at the symbols. “Then why was her name never engraved on the temple cornerstone?”  
Goren fidgeted and glanced to Garret as the man’s head snapped up. They locked eyes but neither made any indication as to how to proceed.  
“Mirabelle never made it to the temple.” Goren finally said, choosing his words with extreme care. The guardian was looking at the troll as if he couldn’t decide to be proud or upset by his choice. They both knew that for whatever reason, this story had been kept from this generation of hosts, particularly Scara’s young, innocent ears.  
“Why not?” Scara asked, brow furrowed in confusion. “Was she like Elsa? Did she have a home and family?”  
“She died when she was twelve.” Goren said, deciding that they were down the path already. Best not to leave Scara entirely in the dark. “Isen awoke unexpectedly on Mirabelle’s tenth birthday and the two of them did not immediately agree. Isen’s power came unhinged and poor little Mirabelle accidentally froze her homeland and several of the surrounding provinces in a never-ending winter. It took the military two years to track her down and then they publically executed her to end it.”  
“Executed her?”  
“She died.” Garret said simply, sparing the naive spring host the horror of the full truth.   
Goren gave the Guardian a thoughtful look that the man returned evenly. He’d always been overprotective of the girls, particularly Scara. Goren couldn’t say he agreed with such treatment. “The other hosts were in their late seventies and quickly expiring.” Goren explained, turning back to Scara. “The previous guardian was old as well, even older than the hosts. When Mirabelle was killed, he returned himself to the Mother to face judgment for his failure. Within the next four years, the remaining hosts all died of various causes and the cycle began again.”  
“When did the other trolls drop their support?” Garret asked, placing a large volume of scripture on the table.  
Goren shrugged away the bad memories associated with that particular time. Even after all this time, it was not an easy feat. “After Mirabelle’s death. The King of the trolls decided then that they no longer wanted any part in the temple and the Mother’s Doctrine. When my family branch implored that he change his mind, he kicked us out of our homeland to live here.”   
Scara’s eyes shone with pity and she laid a gentle hand on the small troll’s head. “So you tracked us down alone?”   
The troll smiled, touched as he always was by the spring host’s compassion. “I hardly had to do any tracking.” Goren admitted, patting her hand and stepping gently away from Scara’s touch. “Not when the Guardian found you both first.” He and Garret exchanged a glance and the normally stoic man offered the troll a soft smile. “My father helped with some of the initial tracking.” Goren continued. “We guessed the provinces of your births. His final days were spent chasing these scrolls around the temple and making the predictions. Isen died first so we knew that her host would be the oldest. Branna died not long after Isen so they’d be about the same age. Død had died a year previously, and Livet hung on for a few more years, sitting alone in the temple with us until her time came.  
“But without the help of our family, without their wisdom and insight. We did not have the resources to retrieve you. Then my father died and I was left here alone, desperately searching for the hosts we’d lost. For five years, I thought I’d caused the end of the council.”  
Goren paused here, worried he might say too much or that the guilt may become too much to hold back.   
Scara smiled in understanding. “I just wish we had found Elsa and Død’s hosts sooner!” She said, laying the scroll flat on the table. They all stared at the glowing name on the bottom indicating the current host of the winter goddess: Queen Elsa of Arendelle.  
“Didn’t the scrolls reveal anything?” Garret asked. “I thought they displayed the names as soon as the births occurred?”  
“That’s the odd thing,” Goren said, pulling the Isen scroll closer to himself. “Elsa’s name did not appear on the scroll twenty-one years ago except among the record of all births in the province. The first time I’d seen her name in the list of hosts was when it appeared four days ago during the eternal winter she cast. I have no idea why.”  
Garret frowned. “And you didn’t think it odd that that happened?” He asked the troll, leaning forward so he could look over the long list of past hosts as well. “That there simply was no Winter host for 21 years?”  
“We did. But there wasn’t much we could do about it.” Goren placed the scroll gently aside, knowing it would probably take the opportunity to vanish and pulled the tomb of scripture towards him. “There is an ancient section of scripture that foretells of such a thing…” He lifted the cover with difficultly and grabbed a thick handful of pages, struggling to open the book to the right section. After a second of desperate struggling, the Guardian reached over and easily peeled open the pages for the troll.  
Goren nodded in thanks and jumped up on the book, furiously scanning the ancient script. “…I’m sure it’s here somewhere…Ileana is quoted to have uttered it on her deathbed on the Mother’s instruction…”  
Garret and Scara were silent as they watched the troll search. Words of the first hosts had been recorded as scripture and preserved by the temple in dozens of huge scripture books like this one. In those days, the Mother spoke to all her children, especially Ileana, it was said. But by the time the next generation was born, she had ceased from speaking to all but the eldest for reasons unknown.  
“’When the Mother’s voice ceases…names shall fade.’” Goren read slowly. “’No more a cycle, no more engraved.’”  
“What does that mean?” Scara asked.  
“Sometime in the future, the Mother will stop talking to the hosts.” Garret said, leaning back and folding his hands thoughtfully in front of him. “She’ll no longer tell us her will through the Head Councilor. The scrolls will fade and the names of hosts wont be carved on the cornerstones.”  
Scara looked up at Garret, her eyes wide and confused. “But…she’s still talking to us.” She turned to Goren. “Isn’t she?”  
Garret’s brow furrowed. “Unless Theo has been lying to us about listening to her…which somehow I doubt.”  
They were all silent as they pondered the obvious burdens of the authoritative, temperamental Head Councilor.   
“The failure in Elsa’s prediction could be any number of things.” Goren assured Scara, hopping off the scripture book. “Most likely my family did something to keep us away from her. Let us not immediately ascribe this flaw to the end of days…The cycle may be disturbed but it is in no way dying.”  
“So why can’t we find the autumn host?” Scara asked, still sounding unconvinced. Garret patted her shoulder reassuringly.  
“My father predicted the birth. It was the last one he did.” Goren tugged the Død scroll out from under the thick volume of the Mother’s scripture, immensely glad it had not taken the opportunity of the past few minutes he had not been looking at it to vanish again. “We estimated the province to be somewhere south of here but before we could pinpoint it…” He paused, as if unsure if he was allowed to continue.  
“What happened?” Scara asked gently.  
Goren looked up at them, his eyes hard. “One day, the new name just vanished.”  
Garret crossed over to stand behind the troll and peered at the curling script on the scroll. Because he was merely human, he’d never be able to easily read the words of the spirits and the Mother. But it was easier for him, the Mother’s chosen one than it would be for anyone else.   
Sure enough, on the brown scroll, there was a conspicuous blank spot.   
“Død’s hosts are often the hardest to retrieve.” The troll said sadly. “My father always told me that many of them died upon the awakening of the spirit. Død is too powerful for some. It takes a truly powerful person to confine Death to their form. Those that do survive often go mad or try to take their own life when they realize their touch means death. A great many young girls have been killed under the suspicion of them being witches when they accidentally curse their homelands with Død’s breath.”  
Garret and Scara shared a look and for once, Goren found it impossible to know what the young girl was thinking. He knew just how much she had struggled to contain Livet when it had awakened. He knew that even though Life was a gift, confining it to human form was a terrible burden. Livet’s hosts were often no better off than Død’s.   
“And a new name never appeared to you?”  
Goren shook himself out of his musings when Scara asked the question. “There is another name that appeared sometime later, but it doesn’t make any sense. And we couldn’t get any idea of where to start looking.” He snapped the scroll open further so that he could see the very bottom of it. As always, the sight gave him chills. “For another, the name was of a child born several days too early…and look at it.” Goren flicked his wrist towards the humans and the Død scroll unfurled completely, its curling edge snapping against the table.  
Scara and Garret leaned forward and peered at the tiny name at the very end of the scroll.   
Scara was the first to speak. “But…isn’t that…?”  
Garret shook his head. “That’s not possible.” He said quietly.  
“It must be a mistake…” Goren agreed. “we have to keep looking. These scrolls have been wrong in the past but to have two of them wrong at the same time…”  
He let his unfinished statement hang uneasily in the air. No more words were said as the three of them returned to their searches, pulling open large history tomes and books of scripture, Goren occasionally rolling between the human and the host to clarify a word or make a calculation. None of them noticed when the Isen scroll disappeared into thin air, probably to balance itself on the highest tower or back teetering on the edge of the well.  
Off to the side however, the brown scroll remained present and open, the handful of letters arranged at the very bottom spelling out the impossible name.  
***  
Although sunset was fast approaching, Kristoff did not take them directly back to Arendelle.  
“What are you doing?” Elsa asked as he pulled the sled to a stop in a stand of tall trees. They were still pretty high up in the mountains, with snow littering the ground in every direction. The North Mountain was still visible in the distance.  
“I just need to check something.” Kristoff said as he adjusted Sven’s leads and harness. “wont take long, you can just sit in the sled if you want.”  
“Where are we?” Elsa asked, looking around. They were not in Arendelle lands, of that she was certain. She knew all the lands in her kingdom like the patterns on the back of her door.  
“Arendelle’s North border with the wilderness.” Kristoff said as he helped Olaf down from the sled. “This is one of my prime spots for ice. I just wanted to check if it has refrozen yet.”  
Elsa stepped down from sled before Kristoff could offer her a hand. He seemed a little flustered but brushed it off.  
“Follow me then.”  
They left Olaf and Sven with a small bag of carrots: Olaf giggling and trying out different “noses” and Sven licking his lips and plotting his chances to lunge forward. A short walk later, the trees broke into a large clearing. Opposite them, the peaks of two small mountains formed a bowl with the forest ground, shrouded by purple shadows of the peaks. Resting in the graceful cup was an enormous lake, its surface eerily still and reflective.  
“What is this place?” Elsa’s voice felt far too loud for the secluded spot. She swore just her voice had made ripples on the distant water.  
“Isen lake.” Kristoff replied, the name sending a shiver through the snow queen. “usually it’s frozen…but it melted when they took you away. Everything melted…”  
Elsa took a few steps forward but suddenly felt overwhelmingly dizzy. She quickly lowered herself to the ground as gracefully as possible before Kristoff could notice.   
“Was Olaf okay?” She asked as her vision briefly went black. Talking seemed to help and her vision quickly cleared.  
If he noticed her momentary discomfort, Kristoff did not show it. “Fine. He melted a bit the first day but we kept him cold and he held up. Never lost his good spirits.”  
Elsa smiled, grateful that her momentary lapse hadn’t cost them the heart-warming, hug-loving snowman. She had grown quite fond of him and she knew Anna was deeply attached to the little guy. How must she have felt when he was melting?  
“Anna was worried sick.” Kristoff continued as if he had read her thoughts. “About him and you.”  
Startled, Elsa turned to face him. “I didn’t…”  
Kristoff smiled at her. “I know you didn’t ask but I also know you want to know. It’s written all over your face.”  
Elsa knew she had a very good court face. After all she’d been practicing for years. In the past few days, with the winter and being in the company of the others, she’d let it fade away somewhat but it was still there, tucked away like a mask and she used it often. For him to have seen through that… “How the hell did you get so good at reading people?” There was no spite in the question, only bewilderment.   
Kristoff shrugged. “I pay attention. With my profession, I’m invisible to most. And don’t worry,” he said to Elsa’s still amazed look. “You’re one of the most difficult people I’ve ever had to read.”  
They were silent for a moment, watching the wind chase tiny waves across the otherwise mirror-still surface of the lake. Elsa was wondering just how much about her the mountain man knew from ‘paying attention.’  
“How do you know Theonia?” She finally asked, her curiosity getting the better of her. She’d been thinking about the summer host the whole way down here, focusing desperately on how she could have possibly known Kristoff so her thoughts did not turn to the color of her eyes or how close they’d come to…  
Thankfully, Kristoff sighed loudly at that moment, breaking Elsa’s thoughts. He leaned against a tree thoughtfully. “So that’s her name…” He adjusted his cap and tugged off his mittens before continuing. “Well, it was years ago. We were both kids. She was always hanging around the ice fields with one of the ice men. I thought she was his daughter.” He tucked the mittens away into his satchel. “I never got her name.”  
Elsa had a hard time imagining Theo as anything except a tense, angry woman prone to playing with fire, let alone a quiet, obscure child collecting ice. “So what happened? Why did you think she was dead?”  
Kristoff’s face fell. “She fell through thin ice one day, we all thought she had drowned.”   
Elsa had a sinking suspicion she knew why Theo had fallen through the ice and it had to do with her tendency to set her own hands on fire.   
“What was she doing with you?” Kristoff asked.   
“It’s…complicated.” For all her regal training, that was the best way Elsa could think to describe it.  
“Elsa,” She paused at the gentle tone in the mountain man’s voice. “the trolls told me the whole story of the hosts. How they…need to live in isolation, how they are stolen from their families.” He didn’t look at her but instead shoved his hands deep into his pockets.   
“Theo was forcing me to stay,” Elsa finally admitted, “She’s the summer host.”   
“Well that explains the fire.” His nonchalance about the whole control of the elements he’d witnessed was unreal. Elsa was grateful for it nonetheless. It was part of what had made her newfound friendship with him so easy.  
“She’s also the Head Counselor.” Elsa told him. He nodded like he understood which really should not have surprised the queen at all. The trolls were practically gods themselves.  
“So why did she let you leave now then?”  
Elsa shrugged. “No idea. I guess maybe she realized just how in control I really was.” But even as she said it, Elsa knew that couldn’t be it. Something else had to have impacted this decision. She’d displayed her control multiple times and had gotten nothing but fury and envy from the summer host. But the way Theo had reacted to the words my little sister…For a split second, Elsa thought that maybe the girl had done it out of confusion and affection for the moment they had shared. But she quickly brushed that away. No use dwelling on that.  
“Actually…” Elsa turned back to the mountain man as a hint of nervousness crept into his voice. Kristoff shuffled his feet and pushed away from the tree he was leaning on. His cap was off and he was twisting it in his hands. “Your majesty…I have a very important question for you.”  
Elsa was quiet, letting the mountain man speak, not even bothering to insist he call her by name. She knew it was a reassuring action for him when he was nervous. “Look I just wanted to ask because well…” He rubbed the back of his neck. “Anna told me what happened after Hans asked you…and I…not that I think you’ll…obviously not but…just in case…”  
He looked at Elsa as if expecting her to finish the sentence for him and put him out of his misery. She just raised an eyebrow in silent question.  
“I want to ask Anna to marry me!” Kristoff blurted out suddenly. His face reddened and he looked down.   
Elsa waited for the echo in the grove to fade before she attempted a response.  
“Give it some time before you ask her.”  
His head snapped up in surprise at her calm, blunt answer and their gazes locked. Kristoff looked like he was fighting a hopeful smile. Elsa felt the same way only she knew she hid it better.   
“Kristoff, you’re good to Anna.” She began. “You protect her selflessly and I know how much you care about her. But you haven’t known her that long.” Elsa turned away from him and looked out over the water again. It had stilled again, reflecting the bright swirling twilight clouds above. A surprisingly good comparison to Elsa’s current inner storm. “After what happened with Hans, I don’t want her to get hurt again.” Anna deserved so much after the hell Hans had put her through. Elsa very much doubted Kristoff would ever do anything even remotely similar but she couldn’t bear it if Anna got hurt again.  
“I know…I know! Believe me, that is the last thing I want. I just…for the future…”His voice fell slightly. “I…I wanted to ask you here in case you…you…”  
“I’m fine Kristoff.” Elsa said with a touch of humor. “I’m not going to freeze the kingdom again just because you want to marry my sister.”  
The relief from him was so palpable, Elsa could feel it on the back of her neck. “Oh good….I…I mean, not that I was worried you would! Just…”  
Elsa turned back to face him with a genuine, brilliant smile on her face. “I already consider you part of our family Kristoff.”  
Her words made him blush again. Kristoff finally seemed to notice that he’d practically made his cap unravel with the violent way he’d been twisting it. Meekly, he dropped his head and tried to force the cap back into its proper shape.  
Elsa chuckled. “I see why my sister loves you.”  
Kristoff looked up again. “She…she’s said that?”  
Elsa smiled warmly. “She doesn’t have to.” She stood up. “Now, I think the least I can do to thank you for everything these past few days is ensure that your business remains intact.” A simple flick of her wrist was all it took for the lake to become locked up in a foot of beautiful ice.  
“Elsa…” She turned to him as he spoke up again in a stronger voice. He’d put the lopsided cap back on his head. “I…I know it’s not fair to Anna but…if you want, I won’t tell Anna about…this.” He gave her a sideways glance. “About…you.”  
This time, Elsa knew her mask had slipped off completely. She felt the emotions flicker across her face in quick succession: surprise, anger, relief.  
Kristoff just watched her, gauging her reaction in that level-headed way of his. Elsa had found herself liking the man even more with everything she found out about him. He was thoughtful and kind and very capable of dealing with people. He had even brought her all the way out here in case she got upset about his question. He planned ahead carefully, meticulously and sensitively.  
He was effectively giving her complete control over her sister’s perception of her. Letting her decide just how they were going to handle this new revelation about their lives. Elsa felt her lower lip tremble and desperately fought back tears. It was the first time she’d felt in control of the circumstances since she’d woken up in the temple.  
She walked up to the mountain man and stared up into his eyes. Gently, she placed her bare hand on top of his.  
“Thank you Kristoff….” She was so glad Anna had found this wonderful man. She was even happier that he had decided he was ready to devote himself to her sister. She couldn’t have asked for anything more for her beloved little Anna.  
Kristoff gave her a warm smile. “Just out of curiosity…” He said, treading gently. “are you…? I mean have you considered…?”  
“I haven’t decided.”  
Elsa dropped her hand and turned back towards the sled. “Let’s get back before it gets too dark. I am anxious to see my kingdom.”  
But they both knew Elsa wasn’t just referring to the town and the palace walls.  
The sun set as the sled made its way down from the mountains towards the kingdom on the fjord.  
***  
Anna was now fast approaching two days without sleep. But she had never felt more compelled to stay awake.  
She turned another page, the hot chocolate by her elbow long forgotten and unappealingly cold. She was in the library at last, taking full advantage of the silence it offered to delve deep into her sister’s book.  
Anna didn’t come yesterday. The silence was stifling and it kept trying to peak out from under the gloves. But she came back today, knocked and told me about the visiting dignitaries. She knew I’d be at the meeting anyway but seemed to think I would have liked to have gone to the gates with her to greet them. I would have. I really wished I had been there. But it was too strong today.  
I made my way over to the balcony while the dignitaries were leaving, watching from afar as father wished them well and sent them on their way, shutting the gates again behind them. He is so afraid of exposing me, of letting anything else in. I worry about what is happening to Anna. She needs friends to play with, people to talk to who aren’t in paintings or behind doors. And she cant have that because of me.  
I was sitting on the balcony when I heard Anna’s voice below me. She was in the garden below, talking to the ducks, asking them why she couldn’t swim with them to cool off on this impossibly hot day.   
The idea came to me suddenly and I couldn’t not follow through on it. After all, Anna wanted to cool off right?  
There was a bucket on the balcony, filled with water in preparation for watering the plants most likely. It was just begging to fall, perched so near the ledge like that. All I had to do was nudge it.   
The bucket fell, the water spilling out of it. My aim was perfect, Anna got soaked.  
“Oh my god…” Ann a muttered, leaning back in her chair. A chuckle rumbled in the back of her throat. “the bucket!” She had always wondered how that had gotten there. She had assumed it had just been kicked over accidentally by the cleaning staff at an unfortunate time.   
For a second, I was afraid the prank had not been taken well. Anna laughed though. It made me wish I could be there, beside her, that the two of us would be the ones soaking someone else and laughing. But she looked up, searching for the source of her fortunate waterfall and I found myself unable to hold it back. I ran away. Again. I barely made it through the door before it came pouring out of me.   
The entry ended there. Anna lowered the book to her lap and sat back, closing her aching eyes, exhaustion finally catching up to her and reminding her just how much had happened these past two days. All day, after sending her new friend Dagrun off on his mission, she’d been discovering more and more about those years of silence.   
In particular, she was finding out the answer to a lot of the unsolved mysteries of her childhood.  
Elsa.  
In retrospect, she supposed she should have realized that every time something was placed a little too conveniently or no one had claimed ownership to a particularly mischievous prank that her sister had been the culprit.   
But could she really? Her sister had been distant and cold to her for years, never once letting that warm heart peek out from under that stupid door. At least never to Anna’s face. Except at the coronation ball when she’d made her dance with the Duke and had shamelessly giggled the whole time. Now, Anna was discovering, for all those years, Elsa had been letting it show.   
Every single entry in this book was about her.  
Anna gently rubbed her eyes, trying to coax them back open. They would not be persuaded.   
It was all here, right from the very first day the door had been shut. That conversation, the first one they’d had through that stupid door was here, recorded word for word like a prayer. Every day after that was there too, but only the days where Anna had knocked. The others were conspicuously ignored the same way Anna always ignored cabbage on her plate. But there was nothing at all about why Elsa had shut the door.   
Anna sighed and sprawled out in her chair, draping her legs over the arm rest, narrowly missing the cocoa. After discovering her sister’s secret, Anna had figured that the separation had begun the moment Elsa discovered her powers. The book offered no indication of how that had happened though. It simply began, a record of her visits to see her sister all those years the door had been closed, a narrative of a young girl’s worries about herself and her little sister as they grew up together but apart.   
Oh Elsa… Anna thought, her heavy mind beginning to drift through various half-formed dreams. If only you’d told me sooner…  
A sudden, loud knock on the door jolted her awake. “Princess Anna!” She quickly sat up, the book falling into her lap as Kai stumbled into the room panting heavily like he’d just raced up the main staircase.  
Anna was about to gently remind Kai that she’d asked not to be disturbed but something in the man’s face gave her pause.  
“What is it?”  
Kai took a deep breath, steadying his voice and firming up his stance. “Queen Elsa has returned.”  
***  
The first thing Elsa noticed was the complete lack of ice around the castle. Even in the fading post-sunset light it was painfully apparent.   
“So it really did all melt…”   
Kristoff grimaced, slowing the sled as they reached the edge of town. Sven snorted, glad to be done running and pulled them steadily along the outermost row of houses, huffing and panting. He practically sprinted back from the mountains.  
“I can put it all right back, no problem…” But Elsa made no move to do so. Her focus was entirely on the open gates of the castle up ahead.   
“Queen Elsa?” Everyone in the sled turned in surprise at the voice. A small girl stood in the doorway of one of the houses, a bucket in her hand. Clearly, she was about to go collect water for the evening. Kristoff snapped the reins, trying to urge Sven to go faster but the poor reindeer was already far too tired to do anything but walk.  
“Mama!” The girl shouted, turning back into the house. “Mama! The Snow Queen is outside! She’s back!”  
“I was hoping to avoid this…” Kristoff muttered to Elsa as people began to flock to their doorways, drawn by the child’s shouting. “I guess you cant exactly travel subtly when everyone knows what you can do…”  
Elsa paid them no mind, not even when the people began to cheer and several children ran after the sled shouting “snow! snow!”. She had turned back to the castle and had her hands clasped in front of her. Small icicles were growing in the bottom of the sled then abruptly melting as the queen wrung her hands.  
She’s nervous. The Ice Master realized. He’d never quite understood the relationship the two sisters of Arendelle had but perhaps it was better that way. The two defied explanation already. They loved each other, that much was obvious but the love often appeared to be so strong it caused them both physical pain.  
Kristoff reached out to pat Elsa’s hand reassuringly but was startled when the queen pulled her hand away.  
“I’m sorry…” She said to him, folding her fingers defensively. “I just…I can’t right now.”  
Kristoff looked down, saw the inch of rime coating the bottom of his sled and nodded in understanding. They were silent until they reached the gates.  
The surprise and cheering continued with the smattering of people still in the castle courtyard as well as from the small crowd they’d picked up while crossing town. The guards were clearing the courtyard in preparation for closing the castle gates for the night but people seemed reluctant to leave, especially now that Queen Elsa was back. Olaf eagerly waved and giggled, enjoying the attention. But Elsa continued to ignore them all beyond the occasional distracted smile. All her attention was on the secondary courtyard, her eyes sweeping back and forth. There was no sign of the statue.  
Kristoff pulled the sled to a halt just in front of the main doors and helped Elsa down from the sled. Gerda was waiting at the doorway, her expression somewhere between relieved and angry. Elsa barely noticed her.   
Gerda smiled at Kristoff and Elsa as the mountain man began to unhook Sven’s harness and rub the tired reindeer down. “We thought you’d run away again.” She said gently to Elsa. She reached for the queen’s hands but pulled back when Elsa flinched. “We’re glad your back.”  
There was suddenly the sound of a door being thrown open and crashing against stone. Elsa whipped around and her heart stopped as an ungainly mess of limbs and strawberry-blonde hair tumbled out the main doors and into the courtyard a mere ten feet from the sled.   
“Anna…” The name that had been first in her thoughts these past few days leapt from her tongue.   
Anna looked up, barely able to get her feet back under her in time. She locked eyes with her sister.  
“Elsa.” It was more breath than speech.  
The two of them just stared at each other for a few still seconds. It had only been two days since Elsa had been taken away. It felt like months.  
The entire courtyard seemed to have stopped functioning, watching the sisters watch each other. Elsa didn’t care. She was hardly aware of them.  
At that moment, all Elsa wanted was to throw her arms open, pull her sister close and never let go. From the look in her sister’s eyes she knew she wanted to do the same.  
Elsa’s hands twitched but she couldn’t bring herself to reach out. The walls were still there, the fear of losing control. Anna would not reach out to her, not after how she’d reacted last time. They were stuck.  
“Elsa…” Olaf whined, breaking the silence but not the tension. “My heart hurts again…” He scratched at his chest with one twiggy finger but it did not appear to ease his pain.  
Anna’s eyes darted briefly to the snowman and Elsa saw a flicker of relief cross her face as she saw the flurry had reappeared.   
“Come on, Olaf…” Kristoff said, taking the snowman’s hand and starting to lead him away. “Let’s go brush Sven and get him settled for the night…” He shot a hopeful, meaningful glance at Anna but she only had eyes for Elsa at that moment.   
Olaf allowed himself to be pulled away but never took his eyes off of the two sisters he loved.  
Elsa took a deep, ragged breath and licked her lips, trying to force herself to say something. This was her sister! They should have been embracing, crying hysterically by this point not…this.  
Elsa took a half-step closer, scrutinizing Anna’s face. Now Elsa saw the heavy rings under Anna’s eyes, her bedraggled braids that meant she hadn’t slept the previous night. Anna looked tired. And older. Much older. Elsa wondered if Anna was thinking the same thing looking back at her. She felt older, as if sinking into her deep meditation in the ice palace had added several more years to her memories and lined her face more deeply.  
Unbeknownst to the queen, all that was going through Anna’s mind was what she had read earlier and how she could possibly bring it up without scaring Elsa away. All she was feeling was an outpouring of sisterly affection and regret that those years had had to be that way. All she wanted was a hug but she feared rejection.   
“Where have you been?” Anna finally managed to ask. “Are you okay?”  
Something like relief flickered across Elsa’s face. Then her gaze dropped and the relief was instantly replaced with fear.   
Too late, Anna realized she was still clutching the book.  
“Elsa…I…”  
An all too familiar look crossed Elsa’s face and she darted past Anna, heading for the darkness and silence of the castle.  
“Elsa! No! Wait!” Anna turned to follow. Gerda called after them but they both ignored her. Anna darted into the darkness, calling Elsa’s name desperately. She heard hurried footsteps on the main staircase and suddenly realized where her sister was going.  
No…not again. You promised.  
Anna took the stairs three at a time, running as fast as she could, her ears pricked for the sound she never wanted to hear again. The sound of the door closing again.  
“Elsa!!” Anna shouted desperately, feeling like she was trapped in a nightmare. She rounded the corner at top speed, nearly losing her balance.  
Anna stopped. The door was open. Wide open. Waiting for her, inviting her in.  
Finally (for the first time ever, Anna realized) she crossed the threshold and entered Elsa’s room.  
Elsa was standing in the center of the room, looking out the window, her hands folded in front of her. Waiting for Anna.  
Anna stepped quietly into the room. “You’re not…? Shutting me out…?”  
Elsa turned her head on her shoulders, enough that she could look at her sister out of the corner of her eye. “There were too many people out there…I just...” She took a deep breath. “I needed to be somewhere comforting.”  
Anna scoffed. “Comforting? How is this room in any way comforting?” It was large but very sparsely decorated. Elsa’s four-poster bed was in the corner nearest the window, the Arendelle colors guarding it on either side. Elsa’s desk was in the corner opposite, piled high with impeccably organized books and files nearly as completely as the desk in her office was. There was little else in the room except the subtle signs of ice damage from the fourteen years Elsa had confined herself to this room. Anna ran her finger over a thin icicle scar on one of the bed posts, wondering how old Elsa had been when that had happened.  
Elsa turned around completely and walked past her sister, shutting the door tightly.  
“It’s like the gloves.” She told the door. “They became a habit. It gives me a semblance of control when I feel uneasy.” She turned around to face her sister. Now Anna saw the thin rime coating Elsa’s hands.  
Anna found she had to swallow before she could reply. “Why…why do you feel uneasy?”  
Elsa didn’t answer but her eyes dropped to the book in Anna’s hands.   
“Oh! Oh…I…I’m sorry Elsa I just…I found it in your trade notes and…I thought it was just trade calculations or something…”  
“How much did you read?” Elsa asked quietly, interrupting Anna’s stuttering apology.  
Anna paused. “Most of it.” She admitted. Her fingers traced the spine absently.  
Elsa only nodded, her lips sealed tight, sadness shining in her eyes.  
“Elsa…all those years…why did you force yourself to stay away from me?” Despite asking the question that had plagued her entire childhood, Anna felt surprisingly calm about it.  
“I couldn’t let you know about me, Anna.” Elsa whispered. She was massaging the thumb of her left hand with her right palm, the same way she had when they’d discussed her engagement to Hans at the coronation. Anna saw the moisture gathering on her sister’s palms and realized the gesture’s importance.  
“Why not? I could have handled it, I could have been there for you Elsa!”Anna put the book down on Elsa’s bed and stepped closer to her sister. “Think about how different our childhood could have been if I’d known what you could do? So many snowmen built and snowballs dropped on people, you could have taught me to ice stake…”  
Elsa was shaking her head. “Stop Anna. Please.” Anna could feel the temperature drop slightly but paid it no mind. She had to prove to Elsa that she was not afraid.  
“Elsa…” Anna said gently. “You wanted that so much. Every single entry, every one, was about me and how much you worried about me and wanted to be with me. Why didn’t you just tell me? We could have avoided all this.” She gently brushed Elsa’s forearm.  
Elsa’s gaze clouded with fear. “Don’t touch me!” She shouted, flinching away. Before she even finished moving, the fear had melted away. “I’m sorry! I’m sorry…” She apologized hurriedly. Even after everything, it was still too much. Touching Anna was still the most difficult thing she’d had to do.   
Elsa hid her face in her hands, trying to bring the temperature back up to normal. “I’m sorry Anna…”  
“Why are you sorry?” Anna asked gently, her breath clouding in the air.  
“I…I cant…touch you.” Anna had never heard her sister’s voice sound so broken and wretched. “I…I want to but I can’t!” Elsa gulped thickly, barely holding back tears. “I’m too afraid it will hurt you again.”  
“Alright.” Anna took a step back, trying to give Elsa some kind of semblance of space. “Where did you go?” She asked in an effort to change the subject and receive an answer to her initial question.  
Elsa swallowed hard again, forcing her mask into place. “It…it’s difficult to say.”  
Anna saw the mask but forced down the feeling of spite she had always felt towards it. “Who took you?” Elsa didn’t answer that.  
Anna wasn’t deterred. “Why did they take you?”  
“Because of my powers.”   
She had guessed as much. “How did you escape?”  
The queen rubbed her eyes and straightened her spine. “I didn’t. They let me go.”  
“Why?”  
Elsa looked up and their gazes locked. Anna waited but it appeared her sister had nothing more to say. Her face had closed off in a way Anna was far too familiar with.  
She shook her head in disbelief. “Don’t do this again Elsa. Don’t shut me out. Not after everything we’ve been through. I died for you Elsa. You froze me, I became a statue. You wont hurt me again.”  
She saw the hurt in Elsa’s face, her desperation to overcome that boundary, her helplessness at being unable to scale it.   
Anna stepped around her sister and began to walk towards the door. She saw a brief flicker, just a flicker of pain cross her sister’s face, as if she wanted to tell Anna not to go. It was enough for her to pause. “You know what the hardest part about these past few days was?” She asked softly. Elsa shook her head. “Thinking I’d lost you.” A barely audible moan escaped Elsa’s lips. “I didn’t know if Kristoff would find you.” Anna continued. “I didn’t know if you’d be okay or safe or…or dead.” Anna took a shaking breath. “I’m glad your back. But I can’t wait fourteen more years for you to come back to me.”  
Anna turned to go, leaving the book where it was. If Elsa really wanted them to heal, she shouldn’t need to read their relationship out of the past.  
But as she tried to open the door, the queen suddenly lunged out. “Anna.” Elsa gripped her arm tightly, startling her sister. Elsa was never this aggressive. “I never want to shut you out.” She said, in a voice like iron. “I never wanted too. I had to. It was something I had to do to keep you safe when my powers were out of my control.” She looked down and suddenly seemed startled to find Anna’s arm in her grip. She let go but didn’t back away. “Trust me when I say that when I can’t tell you, it is for your own protection.”  
Anna watched her for a moment, trying to see past the reemerging wall to the hidden sister underneath. She remembered the bucket, the cocoa on the banister, her tutor’s vanishing pencils. All the mysteries that had been solved by the same answer. “Alright Elsa.” She finally said. “If you don’t want to tell me what happened, that’s fine.” She turned around completely and grabbed her big sister by the shoulders, ignoring the way ice rime licked at her fingers. “But if you think for one second that I am going to let you suffer through it alone, then you are in for a big surprise.” She reached down and took Elsa’s hand in her own, ignoring the flicker of discomfort that crossed Elsa’s face. “I don’t need to be protected. I am here for you. Don’t push me away.”  
Elsa felt like her heart was swelling even while it was being punctured.   
How in the world had she been so blessed with a sister like Anna?  
Anna just stood there, no expectations in her gaze. Only absolute, unwavering devotion. “Don’t make me cry Anna.” Elsa begged, tears defiantly escaping. “Crying is not going to…oh dammit.” Snow had started to fall from the ceiling.  
Anna pulled her sister close and cradled her as she sniffled. Elsa hated the way her whole body tensed at all the contact, she hated that the steady beating of her sister’s heart was more a reminder of how she’d almost killed her than a comforting rhythm. She knew Anna could feel how stiff she was but her sister did nothing except gently stroke her hair.   
“You’re okay Elsa…” Anna whispered softly in her ear. “I’ve got you.”  
That was all it took. Like ice shattering, every muscle in her body unclenched as the wall came down. Cold air shot from her lungs in a desperate gasp of relief. Elsa broke down and finally, finally cried in her sister’s arms.  
They sank to the floor, Elsa practically sitting in Anna’s lap, her head buried in Anna’s neck. She sobbed and wailed and let the snow pile up and the temperature in the room drop dangerously as she just let it all go.   
And Anna sat there the whole time, stroking her hair, holding her tightly, whispering soothing words and trying not to shiver.  
Sometime later, Elsa finally cried herself out. “I’ve been thrust into a whole new world.” She mumbled into Anna’s neck. “I don’t know the rules, I’m not in charge, not in control. I don’t even know who I am anymore.”  
Anna’s fingers lightly stroked the back of Elsa’s neck, carefully considering her answer. “You cant keep me in the dark Elsa.” She said. “It’s better if I know what we’re up against. I can help you.”  
If anything, crying had given Elsa more resolve to do just the opposite. It had also made her realize just how little she had told Anna since the coronation. Perhaps it was time she knew. Time she knew just why she should be afraid of her and how dangerous being around her could be. After all, she’d just opened up to Anna for the first time in years and nearly frozen the entire room. Elsa sat up, gently extracting herself from Anna’s grip. With a wave of her hand, the snow vanished. “Let me tell you something.” She said, suddenly very serious. “Something mama and papa made me swear never to tell you.”  
Anna was quiet. Elsa reached up and plucked the book off of the bed. She fiddled with it anxiously for a second before looking up again. Anna was puzzled by the haunted look in the queen’s watery eyes.  
“You remember that white streak you had in your hair before the thaw?” Elsa asked.  
Anna nodded. She kind of missed that. It had always been a great conversation starter.   
“I put it there.”  
It took Anna several seconds to grasp the full meaning of Elsa’ s words.  
“So…so you…struck me before? When?”  
Elsa’s gaze fell. She knew that the little book had not contained a recollection of that night, only a vague description of its consequences. For a seven-year-old girl who had just realized how dangerous she really was, such memories were too painful and adult to put into words.  
“When we were very young. It was just a chance accident and it drove us apart for years to keep you safe. That’s why I wrote the book. I didn’t want to forget how it used to be. How I wish it could have always been.”  
Anna watched Elsa stand and place the book on her bedside table, like how one would place a candle to ward off the darkness of night. “Why don’t I remember it?” She asked.  
“The trolls had to remove the memories. To save you. And I had to keep my distance. To protect you.”  
Anna was quiet, partially because she was processing this new knowledge but also because she sensed there was more Elsa wanted to say, if only she could find the words.  
After several minutes of intense silence, Elsa finally spoke again. “Anna, you taught me that my powers were beautiful.” She was facing away from Anna, looking towards the door. That stupid door. “Long before I even realized it, every time you made me crawl out of bed in the middle of the night to build a snowman with you…you taught me there was nothing to be afraid of.” A broken smile turned up the corners of Elsa’s mouth. “Everything I did, I did to make you happy. To keep you believing that I was your wonderful older sister with a beautiful, fun gift, not a dangerous power.”  
Anna was still quiet, taking advantage of the unusually talkative moment to listen as her sister bared her heart. Elsa swallowed. “But it was so hard. All those years you knocked on my door…forcing me to feel that pain of separation. Every word you spoke made the ice harder to contain each time.” She drew a deep, shaking breath and finally turned to look at Anna. “But I understand now. You were trying to tell me that it was okay to let it go. That my powers were not something to conceal but something to celebrate.”  
The queen knelt next to Anna on the floor, never breaking eye contact. Slowly, Elsa stretched out a trembling hand. Anna didn’t move as the cool hand brushed her face in the gentlest way imaginable. “Everyday you tried to tell me that Anna…I just regret that it took me so long to hear you. That I’m still afraid of hurting you. That I still can’t protect you.”  
Anna’s mouth twitched up in a smile. “It can be like that again Elsa.” Anna leaned into the touch, letting the hand make full contact with her cheek. Elsa did not pull away. “I may not remember, but subconsciously, I think I always knew. That’s why I was never afraid of you. Your powers are beautiful Elsa. Just like you are, inside and out.” She pulled Elsa close again and kissed her hairline. “You’re in control now. We’ll get there again.”  
Elsa trembled and placed her other hand on Anna’s shoulder. “I don’t deserve a sister like you…”  
Anna just held her tighter. “Tough, cause I’m the only one you’ve got.”  
Elsa chuckled then coughed to expel the sudden onslaught of emotion that had taken up residence in her throat.  
“So what have you been up to?” She asked Anna, sitting back so she could look her sister in the eyes. She raised an eyebrow at what she saw. “Apart from not sleeping and stealing my private property?”  
Anna pouted, the action causing utter joy to race through her at its lightness. “Next time don’t hide it somewhere I’m going to look.”  
Elsa giggled. “I had no idea you’d be reviewing trade agreements!”   
They laughed for a moment, both of them recalling Anna’s terrible record with finances. “I was doing that for awhile…” Anna hesitated, unsure if she should bring up the next bit. “And I may have also started a little project of my own.”  
Elsa’s brow creased. “What kind of…project?”  
Anna quickly recounted meeting the beggar boy in the kitchens and how she had befriended him.   
“So I sent him off on a little mission to gather some information for me.”  
All mirth slipped off the queen’s face. “Gather information…? What kind of information? What are you doing?”  
Anna hadn’t really known how Elsa was going to react to her new idea. But this worry definitely hadn’t even crossed her mind. “They are called the Ice Informers.” She assured Elsa. “Well, they call themselves that. I prefer to think of them as Princess Anna’s Secret Street Urchin Spy Network.”  
Elsa was shaking her head. “Anna…why did you…? Why?”  
Anna fixed her sister with a regal stare she had once seen their mother use on their father. “Your absences have rocked the kingdom. There is much to be done.” Elsa said nothing, her lips closed very tightly.  
“The freeze was tough on everyone.” Anna continued, somberly. “Almost every report we received back spoke of devastation. People were scared and cold, there was almost a riot in the southern villages on the last day. The Thaw helped but the memories are still too raw, too terrifying. And some are not entirely convinced that you are fit to be Queen. You’ve spent more time away from the throne than on it this past week. People are starting to talk, doubting your fitness to rule.”  
Anna let this sink in, burying her own feelings about just how unfair it was that Elsa would have to suffer this way.  
Elsa stared at the wall for a long time, collecting her thoughts. “How do you know this?” Elsa finally asked.  
Anna smiled. “Little ears hear more than you think.” She shifted so she was leaning against the back of the bed. She let her head rest against the wood. “Dagrun is in charge.” She said casually.  
Elsa raised an eyebrow. “Dagrun?” She had Anna had used to share storybooks in their childhood.  
“I gave them all names.” Anna said, stifling a yawn. “Better that way, if even I don’t know their real names, no one can ever connect us.”  
“All of them? How many are there?”  
“Only a few right now…” Anna mumbled, blinking heavily. “But they’re gathering more…”  
Elsa sat back, struggling to accept this new reality. Anna was clearly growing up fast. Gone was the fragile, overly-optimistic girl who had tried to marry Hans and set off into the wilderness on a wild chase after her runaway sister.  
I keep missing the important things.  
“Anna…” Elsa began softly, trying to fathom how her sister knew so much at spying. “When you were little…did you…did you listen at doors a lot?”   
Anna’s eyes snapped open and made contact with hers. But she didn’t answer. It took Elsa several seconds to realize why that had been a stupid question. She’d more meant it as a query into Anna’s history with gathering classified information. She supposed it should have been obvious.   
“Why are the Southern Isles here?” Anna asked, sparing Elsa from making an awkward apology for her last question.  
Elsa had honestly forgotten her brief communication with Prince Christian after the Thaw. It had been one of a thousand requests that day. Plus, being kidnapped had driven all thoughts of the letter and how she was going to tell Anna from her mind. “Haven’t your Informers already told you?” She asked Anna, fighting to keep the disproval out of her voice.  
“No. I was waiting for you to tell me.” Anna said coolly. She sat up slightly but her head still sagged against the bed frame. “And don’t tell me to disband them, Elsa. They could be very useful.”  
“Anna, I will not spy on my own people.” Elsa said in a hard voice. “That is a tactic of a tyrant or a lunatic and I am neither of those.”  
“They are not spying.” Anna insisted, rubbing her eye with one hand. “They are listening. I am not planning on using this information for cruel, political purposes Elsa. I just want us to know what struggles the people have that they may not be able to voice before us.”  
“Are you also hoping they will report on foreign visitors?”   
“The Informers can help.” Anna said, not at all surprised that her sister had picked up on her plan. “I don’t think we should trust the Isles. Having more information can only help us better handle their visit. And if such information prevents them from trying anything like what Hans did, I will feel no shame.”  
Anna stifled another huge yawn as Elsa stared at her in amazement. “You’ve always been the one to run the kingdom Elsa.” Anna mumbled, her eyes starting to droop. “You were always the perfect one…you could do it all. But I’m good with people…listening to people and helping people. This is something I can do to help you and…Arendelle.” Her eyes closed completely. “Let me do it…”  
Elsa couldn’t help it. All her exasperation with Anna melted away as she watched her little sister lose the battle to sleep. They were both exhausted. Clearly being separated from each other only drove them to neglect their basic human needs like sleep and food. The emotional storm they’d just weathered certainly hadn’t helped either.   
Elsa stood up, gently pulling Anna’s limp form with her and stumbled over to the bed. She pulled off Anna’s shoes, untied her hair and tucked her in, her fingers lingering on her sister’s cheek just because she was there. Her precious sister.  
Anna gave her a sleepy smile before she slipped into unconsciousness. Elsa remained upright, staring at her baby sister. Anna thought she was perfect. Anna truly believed that she was just a great human with inexplicable ice powers.   
I can’t tell her about the temple, the others…she’d be in danger. Someone could hurt her to get to me.   
She recalled Kristoff’s changes in demeanor around her, Theo’s bitterness towards the outside world, Scara’s innocent naivety.   
She’d never look at me the same.  
Elsa waved her hand to make her ice dress vanish and found she was still wearing the temple dress underneath. It hadn’t vanished like her clothes normally did. Quickly, she shed it and conjured up an icy nightdress, tossing the black fabric unceremoniously towards her wardrobe.   
Do I really want her to see me like that? Elsa wondered as she slid into bed next to her sister. Like how I see Theo or Scara? Like how humanity sees the hosts? Like goddesses?  
Anna had accepted the powers, could she accept that her big sister, her idol, was actually harboring a powerful and dangerous spirit inside of her? Elsa didn’t want anything else to come between them ever again. This definitely could. She didn’t want Anna to worship her any more than she already did. Not after how many times she’d nearly killed her. She didn’t deserve that.  
Elsa couldn’t lose Anna again. She wanted nothing to threaten their newfound chance at sisterly love.   
But what if they take me away again? It would kill Anna for me to vanish again.   
Anna shifted in her sleep, her head coming to rest on Elsa’s shoulder. A gush of heat ran into Elsa’s stomach and she gently placed her chin on top of Anna’s head. She had some sense that Anna should be kept as far away from the other hosts as possible. They were dangerous and unpredictable. Especially Theo.  
Theo seems to think we’re not at all human…  
Thoughts of Theo were not at all welcome at this time. Elsa’s eyelids were beginning to feel impossibly heavy. She hadn’t really slept since being kidnapped and the meditation had left her feeling drained and exhausted. Sleep would be a welcome change of pace.  
Anna will only worry. Elsa decided as blissful sleep began to claim her. And there’s nothing she can do. There’s nothing I can do…except what Theo said: try to find Isen. It’s better for Anna and for me that I handle this, whatever it ends up being, alone. And once it is done… I’ll tell her…  
And as much as she hated the decision that contradicted everything she’d just promised Anna, Elsa knew it was the only way to keep her safe.  
***  
“More than you,” my sister replied, almost defensively, not loosening her grip on the Prince Hans’ arm. “All you know is how to shut people out.”  
I felt the abrupt change in my expression so deeply that it felt like a thin layer of ice had formed around my heart and suddenly split. “You asked for my blessing, but my answer is no.” I said firmly. I was all Anna had left for family now. I was not going to let her run away first chance she got. Not like this and definitely not with him. Not my baby sister. “Now…” I said, struggling to regain my composure and not sound like my throat was closing up. “excuse me.” I began to walk away.  
“Your majesty,” Hans began smoothly, stepping forward as if to stop me. “if I may ease your…”  
“No you may not.” I interrupted. “and I think you should go.” There was something about him, something that set me on edge. Being around him just made me feel like something wasn’t right.  
It had been a long day, this party was getting to be too long.  
“The party is over, close the gates.” I told the guard as I walked past him, heading for the door, for solitude at last.  
“What? Elsa no! No, please.” I heard Anna’s pleading voice behind me but I forcefully ignored it. But it was impossible to ignore her hand on mine and the slipping sensation of silk leaving flesh. .  
I whirled, jerking my arm away only succeeding in letting the glove slip off entirely, exposing my frigid, pale hand to the air. “Give me my glove!” I shouted at Anna as I tried to snatch it back, panicking as cold rushed through me. She held it out of reach. She would not be coerced this time.  
“Elsa please, please.” She begged, clutching my glove tightly. “I can’t live like this anymore!”  
And there, just like that the ice that was my heart shattered completely. “Then leave.” I told her with as much force as I could muster.  
She took a step back, surprised and hurt but whether from my words or the tears welling in my eyes I couldn’t tell.  
We stood there for a second in the middle of a ballroom where we had once played, years of isolation and in my case, regret and sorrow filling the time and space between us. So many things I wished I could say. So many things I wish I could have done to stop this day.   
Then I turned away, tucking my exposed hand under my arm.  
My sister was leaving. There was nothing left. Not even the false memories were enough to save our sisterly bond in the end. At least she would be safe and happy, away from me. She would be free from my cage at last.  
“What did I ever do to you?” Anna shouted after me, piercing though the self-pity haze enveloping my mind.  
I flinched and didn’t stop. “Enough Anna.” People were listening, watching us fight.  
“No why?”Anna continued, determined to finally have her answer. I just kept walking, increasing the distance. The cold inside me was rising, filling me, threatening to spill over. I had to be alone. “Why do you shut me out?” Anna was saying. “Why do you shut the world out? What are you so afraid of?”  
I’d dealt with the eyes of hundreds for the ceremony and managed to keep my nerves calm and cool. Why were a few words from my sister cracking my composure? Fury raced through me at her shout, sour with an undercurrent of fear. “I said ENOUGH!” I swung my hand out. The flash illuminated the room, casting my shadow in sharp relief on the wall behind me. The ice burst free.  
A thick barricade of icicles sprung from the gesture, racing outwards towards them all. My desire for solitude and protection manifested. And my secret painfully, obviously apparent.  
Everyone backed away, startled, afraid. Silence descended in the ballroom broken only by terrified gasps and mutters. I clutched my hand to my chest, my breathing shallow and fast.  
Wide-eyed, Hans looked from my ice creation to me, his expression unreadable and utterly unfathomable. I found I could not look away. Was he…perhaps under the shock…relieved about this?  
“Sorcery!” The quiet voice of the Duke broke my concentration on Hans. The Duke ducked behind one of his men. “I knew there was something dubious going on here…” He muttered giving me a glare that made me feel like a rabbit facing a dog.  
My gaze shifted to Anna. Her eyes were wide with realization. “Elsa…” She breathed.  
And with that, I knew it was hopeless. We could never be close again. She would always be afraid of me, always in danger. Anna was the only thing in this world that could force me to lose control.  
I’m so sorry Anna…  
My gloved hand found the door handle and I ran, my cape billowing behind me. I sprinted through the dark halls, forcefully restraining the cold that tried to leak free and ice the walls as I passed. I had to get away, I had maybe a few minutes head start before anyone could escape the ballroom to chase me or spill my secret.  
But where could I go? What was I doing?  
I threw myself against the doors to the courtyard, but they sprang open before I’d even touched them due to the gust of icy wind preceding me. I stumbled outside.  
“There she is!”  
I froze as I took in the enormous crowd blocking my escape. Of course, the gates were still open, the townspeople were inside. Everyone was cheering and clapping upon finally seeing me. A Queen that was a complete stranger but still they were so proud of me…so happy I was their ruler. Why was that? They knew nothing about me. The stupor finally broke as I thought I heard footsteps in the hall. I dove into the crowd, desperate to run.  
People just kept appearing in front of me, shouting out praises and calling my name. I was panicking worse than ever, charging through the crowd, trying desperately not to touch anyone…why couldn’t they just move? Give me space, get away from me?!  
“Your majesty,” A young woman holding a child asked me gently, cutting off my escape route. “Are you alright?”Concern in her eyes. Her baby giggled happily, stretching out its tiny arms towards me.  
I backed up, unable to form words. There were too many people…too close…something was going to give…I stumbled and my hands shot out to steady me as my back collided with the fountain. It happened too quickly for me to stop.  
The ice shot across the water, cracking its flaccid surface and racing up the geyser in the center. There it twisted and curled, forcing the water into a horrifying, sharp, jagged shape.  
The shocked silence in the courtyard was the worst sound I’d ever heard. Everyone had wondered and guessed about why I’d been in isolation since childhood.  
Well, now they know.  
“There she is! Stop her!” I turned to see the Duke and his men at the doorway. They’d gotten around my icicles. I was out of time anyway.  
My hands came up in front of me, desperate to keep them away from me.   
“Please,” I begged. “Just…stay away from me…stay away!”  
It happened before I could even think of stopping it; the ice burst free and exploded around the stairs. Several of the townspeople were able to jump out of the way but the Duke and his men were caught in it. They slipped and fell on the ice-encrusted stairs, their clothes covered in rime.  
The power was literally burst from me. I couldn’t keep it in anymore. My frame was too weak to hold the full force of winter.  
The Duke sat up, looking stunned. “Monster…” He stammered, scrambling backwards from me. “Monster!” He shouted, pointing accusingly.  
I stared down at the betraying hand and pulled it tight against me as the cold swirled again. No one else…I will not hurt anyone else.  
I looked around. Everyone backed away, pulling their children close, their eyes laced with fear. There were a few more shouts of ‘monster!’ from the crowd. It was happening…fear was spreading. The troll’s words from so long ago echoed in my mind: fear will be your enemy…  
I searched desperately for a friendly face, anyone who would accept this. Anyone who would remember the simple truth that I was their Queen that they had all loved mere seconds ago.  
There was no one.  
Because to them, I was nothing more than a monster.   
***  
Elsa jolted awake with a small sob, experiencing a moment of confusion that her movement was restrained by another person cuddled against her. The foreign feeling made her tense and she felt frigid air leak from between her lips.  
Elsa tried to stop wriggling and breathe more quietly as she realized it was Anna was next to her, sound asleep curled up against her. Just like she had so often when they were little. It was snowing in the room and several icicles had formed around the bed which could not be anywhere near warm enough to sleep in. Although she knew she could make them vanish, Elsa found that at the moment, she couldn’t focus enough to do so. Instead she just laid there as snow gathered on the blanket, trying desperately to breathe and remember that what had happened was the past. Things were different now. The dream was nothing more than a dark memory. She was in control…she was…  
As if she could feel Elsa’s mental torment through her grip, Anna shifted in her sleep and wrapped her arms more tightly around her sister. After a second, Elsa let her muscles unclench and buried her face in her sister’s neck, sobbing quietly. When the tears finally ceased, she found the steady, strong pulse of Anna’s heartbeat and desperately listened.  
And for the first time in forever, Elsa found she was able to sleep after her nightmares.


	8. Unwelcome Visitors

When Theo finally returned to the temple, two whole days had passed since she’d turned Elsa away from the ice palace. She arrived on a summer gust, bringing with her small stinging particles of sand and a hazy, humid heat that made even her short hair stand on end.  
Garret was the first to see her. “Back so soon?” He asked her as she stalked past him, trailing smoke and that heavy, hot wind. It did not surprise him at all that she was ‘leaking’ as he himself often described it. The summer host often threw silent tantrums in outbursts of sand and smoke as summer waned. Fire hated losing its power.  
Garret had taken a break from research duty for a quick training session with his axe. He gently lifted it off his shoulder to rest blade-down on the stones in the entrance hall, wincing as flying sand scratched at his face.  
“Where’s Elsa?” He called after Theo’s retreating form.  
It was only the grace of the Mother that stopped his face from being burned off. As it turned out, he hadn’t been quite fast enough and the end of his hair had been singed by the blaze as he ducked.   
Dropping his axe, he mentally prepared himself to immobilize Theo, calling up all the weak points on the summer host’s body. But as he looked up to avoid any more fireballs, he saw her standing in the middle of the hall, wide-eyed and positively broken with fear and self-loathing.  
She’d never intentionally thrown fire at him before. Not even when they argued.  
“Whoa…what did you do?” Garret asked, trying to make light of the situation to avoid any further fireballs.  
Apparently this too was the wrong approach. “I did nothing!” Theo exploded, a small tornado of sand circling her. The torches around the hall all flared in unison and danced in the gust being projected down the long corridor. A few books fell off of the overflowing bookshelf near the door and several chairs fell over. “All this is her fault! She lied to us!” Her eyes were blood-shot as if she had been crying long and hard.   
Garret dodged a flying shard of glass. He had to figure out what was going on before Theo lost control completely. “Elsa? About what? What happened? Did you find Isen?”  
Theo threw her hands up in exasperation and with a noise like a cannonball, the tornado burst apart and shot around the room, sending drifts of sand and tiny shards of glass crashing into the walls. The books burst off the shelf and tumbled around in a mess of loose pages. The table flipped over. Garret braced himself and managed to stay on his feet as the compressed ball of heat and air smashed into him.  
“See Garret?” Theo growled, clenching her fists to try to regain control as flames licked up the sides of them. “This is what happens when I open up! I lose control!”  
She turned on her heel and stalked away from him, followed by the remnants of her tornado: a mixture of sand, smoke and hot air. Slowly, Garret pushed himself off of the wall and began to follow her.  
Garret knew better than to chase Theo down, paralyze her and demand an explanation at a time like this. She was boiling and simmering like a volcano but desperately trying to keep a lid on it. One should not antagonize angry gods. Thankfully, this time she’d only thrown wind when she finally erupted. Plus, he knew he’d never actually get her to say what was on her mind if he used force. She had an astounding threshold for physical pain. Probably because she regularly accidentally burned herself with flames and molten glass.  
So instead he followed her silently at a distance, letting her round corners before he entered the corridor. He’d never seen her this upset before. He could guess the reason for it well enough. There was only one thing Theo feared even more than killing innocents and the cycle falling apart.  
“Oh Theo…” he sighed, smothering out a rouge flame burning on the wall as he passed. “Why did you let yourself believe this couldn’t happen to you?”  
“Theo?”   
Garret abruptly stopped moving as he heard Scara’s voice just around the bend. He silently crept to the corner and pressed himself against the wall, listening.  
“Are you alright?” The spring host asked, not at all afraid of whatever summer fury Theo was currently projecting. “What happened?”  
“Nothing Scara, please leave me alone.” No hint of derision or anger. She would never lash out at Scara.  
“Where’s Elsa?”  
“Where she needs to be.” Tired. Defeated. And something else. Something he couldn’t place.  
Cautiously, Garret poked his head out around the corner and peered at his two girls.  
Scara was standing in front of Theo, her head tilted slightly as she surveyed the older girl. “Is she alright? What happened?”  
“We didn’t find Isen.” This statement was blunt and Garret saw a few tiny particles of sand rise into the air and swirl around Theo’s feet.  
Scara seemed surprised. “So you sent her home?”  
“Yes.” He could see how every muscle in Theo’s back was clenching with the force of containing her emotions. If she threw even so much as an ember at Scara, she would never forgive herself.  
“But why?”  
“I had too.”  
Scara might be young and inexperienced but she was by no means imperceptive. Garret saw her offer Theo a knowing smile. “You miss her, don’t you?”  
A single muscle relaxed in her stiff back and Theo let her fists come unclenched. Her head fell. She didn’t say a word.  
Scara reached out and gently grasped both of Theo’s hands in her own.  
“Come on, let’s go play in the garden like we used to.” She said, gently tugging so that Theo was forced to turn slightly. “You can watch me grow the vines and open the flowers and you can craft a few glass balls to hang off of them. Then when it gets dark, you can conjure up torches and we can catch fireflies…”  
Garret saw Theo’s face soften, almost imperceptibly. She nodded.   
The Guardian settled back against the stone wall, melting out of sight again as the two turned the corner and headed for the roof. Only once he was sure they had gone up to the roof did he let an audible sigh escape his lips.  
So Theo had let Elsa go after all. He’d suspected that their little trip to the ice palace would not end the way the summer host had wanted it too. Elsa had this way of completely unintentionally and often unknowingly pressing all of Theo’s buttons at once.   
He suspected not even Theo understood the depth to which those two matched each other.  
Garret headed back towards the entrance hall to retrieve his axe. Theo may be stubborn and hot-headed and secretive, even around him, the one who had shared most of the burden and horrors the world had chosen to heap upon her but she was also straightforward and blunt, especially about important matters.   
He retrieved his axe, the wickedly sharp edge ringing against the floor as he hefted it.  
But Garret knew that for Scara’s sake, Theo would always hide the horrors of the world, even those residing in her own heart.  
***  
“I know these past few weeks have been hard on the kingdom. I do not deny that it is mostly my fault.” Elsa swallowed hard as she paused for effect. “But this is the kingdom that weathered the legendary Years of the Great Siege and emerged triumphant, our ancestors defiantly survived the Endless Flood of Old. These very people survived the impossible: winter in the middle of summer. And together we will rebuild and regain our former strength. We will strengthen ties with our allies and forge new alliances to fill the gaps by trade severances. The gates will always be open, all are welcome in the palace. Long Live Arendelle!”  
“Long Live the Snow Queen Elsa!”   
Elsa felt herself starting to blush as the chant rose from the citizens gathered below her. She’d rehearsed public speaking in front of mirrors and, when they had been alive, her parents. But it was not the same as in front of actual people. Actual people could react and do things like this. At least it meant her words had struck a chord.  
Elsa waved regally and stepped off of the balcony, breathing an audible sigh of relief as she stepped into the solitude of the drawing room away from the cheers and gazes. She wanted nothing more than to collapse in one of the chairs and stay there. But there was too much to do.  
She crossed the room, pausing only to glance up at the imposing portrait of her father hanging on the wall. Elsa offered it a tentative smile.  
I hope I made you proud, father.   
As usual, the portrait neither confirmed nor denied her wish. It just watched her. Endlessly.  
Elsa left the room, walking down the long corridor to her office at the other end of the castle. Why they had placed the two so far apart was a mystery known only to her ancestors.  
The end of the month had come far too quickly and had offered her no welcome pockets to rest or travel to the ice palace to meditate, let alone spend more than a few precious hours a day with her sister.   
Her heels clicked against the stone floors as she walked along the corridor, the end of her dress sweeping around her ankles. She didn’t know why but today she’d opted to wear the black temple dress. It was subtle but regal and it allowed her to feel her powers close to her without showing them off.   
She traced a finger along the edge of the sleeve, feeling the cool design she’d imprinted there. The feel was comforting, soothing.  
Elsa had already had three meetings this morning prior to the speech for her subjects. Her head was pounding from lack of sleep and her body was screaming for either food or a few dozen cups of strong tea. No one was giving her any headway or leniency about funding and trades. The stimulus deal was coming far too slowly to ward off worries of the coming winter. For all her encouraging words, they were at best a distant hope. Well, at least the people seemed happy for now.  
Everyone wanted a share of the common wealth. But there just simply wasn’t enough.  
What could she do?  
The sound of hooves on the stairs shook Elsa from her thoughts.   
She barely had time to step aside as Sven came barreling up the main staircase, tongue lolling out of his mouth, his antlers covered in bells that jangled in an disharmonic cacophony.   
“SVEN!! Sven get back here!”  
Sven bellowed and dashed out of sight around the corner.  
“Kristoff?” Elsa asked in confusion as he pounded up the stairs, breathing hard and covered in what looked like streamers and ribbon.   
“Oh Elsa!.” Kristoff said in a very high voice. “Sorry about…” he cleared his throat and his voice dropped back to its usual timbre. “Sorry about the runaway reindeer, he just doesn’t like dressing up. I know you said he had to stay on the first floor if I brought him but he gets excited easily. Anna isn’t back yet is she?” By the end of the rushed sentence, his voice had slipped back up into the high range.  
Elsa had been wondering exactly what ‘dressing up’ a reindeer looked like and exactly what purpose it could possibly serve but his question stopped her from asking. Anna had gone out today but apparently not with the mountain man as Elsa had thought.  
“I thought she was with you…”  
Kristoff violently shook his head. “She wasn’t. Not that she wasn’t supposed to be! WAS, was supposed to be. I sent her on an errand for me. Not because I’m trying to order her around!” He was rambling worse than Anna.   
“Is everything alright?” Elsa asked calmly, cutting him off.  
Kristoff shrugged, the streamers hanging off of him fluttering. Under the ribbons, he was dressed in a deep blue dress tunic hemmed with silver. “Yeah. Maybe. Will be. Got to go catch…run-away reindeer…Bye Elsa.”  
He scampered off, calling Sven’s name loudly. Elsa had neither the energy nor the means to fathom the man’s odd behavior. Both he and Anna had been acting strange lately.   
She set off down the hall again as Kristoff’s yells faded into the west wing of the castle.  
Anna had been being a little more secretive lately and Elsa had good cause to suspect it was because of the Ice Informers. Even though she was against the entire endeavor, Elsa had caved to her sister’s gentle persuasion and let Anna continue her ‘experiment’ with the orphan spies. Anna had taken over their mother’s old parlor and appeared to have renovated the room into an office. At least that’s what Elsa could guess judging by what she’d seen Anna and occasionally Kristoff dragging into and out of the room. She herself had not set foot in the room. Not because Anna was keeping her out, rather because Elsa was still trying to distance herself from the entire affair. It made her uneasy, the thought of children spying on the people like that. Her father had had no spy master, he had preferred to (at least before the gates closed) listen to the people himself and trust in them. But perhaps fourteen years of a sealed castle had driven a wedge between the royal family and the people. She didn’t want that to become a new norm for Arendelle. Not when the gates could finally be open again.  
Elsa reached her office and took opportunity of the solitude to sprawl out in her chair and stretch her aching neck. She let a soft moan escape her lips as she let thin slivers of ice crawl up her back, massaging the stiff muscles.   
Before she could fully relax however, there was a loud knock upon her door. Out of habit, Elsa jumped up, panicking slightly as she realized her gift was visible. Then she remembered and shook her head. Would she ever get used to this?   
“Come in!”  
Kai entered the study, bowing slightly. “I hate to bother you so soon after your speech but the Southern Isles are demanding a meeting.”  
He didn’t even blink as Elsa pulled the ice off of her neck and made it vanish. “I have not had a moment to myself all day Kai, can’t it wait?”  
Kai offered her a sympathetic smile. “I’m sorry, your majesty but Prince Christian is being quite adamant. They have been here two weeks and they are growing impatient.”  
No rest for the weary… “Of course,” Elsa took a moment to collect herself, trying to convince herself she had more energy than she actually did. “show him to the…”  
“I’m sorry to interrupt my lady, but Prince Christian has already seated himself in the drawing room.” Kai informed her. “I think he intended to catch you after your speech…”  
Elsa held back a grimace. “Very well, I will go to him.”  
Kai bowed. “Would you like me to bring refreshments to the drawing room my lady?”  
Elsa smiled, grateful as always for Kai’s thoughtfulness. “I do not intend for this meeting to last very long. But be sure to have something ready after in the kitchens.”  
Kai smiled. “I’ll make the strong tea from Corona.”  
Elsa could have hugged him in gratitude. “Thank you Kai.” He had always looked out for her, even during the years she spent in isolation.  
Elsa left Kai behind in the office, walking a little slower down the same hallway she had just traveled.   
She had been putting off calling upon the Southern Isle’s prince like she did visits to inspect the barracks, not only because she didn’t want to have to deal with the Isles attempting to apologize but also because she knew it would reopen barely healed wounds not only in herself but more importantly, in Anna.   
As Elsa passed the staircase, she heard Sven’s bellow from downstairs followed by Kristoff’s gentle pleading. Vainly, she wished she could be next to him, helping him decorate Sven for whatever reason he wanted. Anything to avoid dealing with the sneaky Southern Isles.  
Elsa paused just outside the drawing room and steadied herself with a deep breath.  
This was just another diplomat. Just another meeting for the stimulus. For Arendelle. She opened the door.  
Prince Christian was standing at the window, gazing out at the balcony Elsa had occupied only moments prior as she addressed her subjects. He turned as she closed the door behind her.   
“Very nice speech.” He complimented her, stepping away from the window. “For all your years of solitude, you are quite the eloquent speaker.”  
Although his back-handed compliment threw her slightly, Elsa let none of it show on her face.  
She examined him thoroughly, trying to figure him out. “Prince Christian of the Southern Isles, I presume?”  
She saw his eyebrow twitch slightly at her cordiality and gracious insult. She ignored the way his eyes traveled her attire with a curious but clearly judgmental air.   
He was larger than his youngest brother with significantly more muscle and a thin, impeccably clipped beard clinging to his face and sideburns. But Christian had his brother’s hair and an identical, disarming smile and gentle air that made most trust him implicitly. Elsa had to remind herself of what had lain behind Han’s smile to avoid relaxing around him. She stared into his blue eyes, several shades duller than her own piercing icy-blue, mimicking his polite, charming smile.  
“Welcome to Arendelle. It was a shame we missed you at my coronation.”  
He chuckled and gripped the pommel of the sword at his waist. “Yes, unfortunate that I missed it. I hear it was quite a spectacle.” His eyes twinkled and he leaned forward slightly. “That you were quite a spectacle.”  
Elsa remained quiet, her mask in place, her hands folded.   
The prince was undeterred by her lack of response. Perhaps he had heard of her legendary stoicism in all political matters. “If I may be so bold…” He began, “My brother mentioned your…” He took a moment, apparently searching for the right word. “…abilities. And since my arrival that has been all the townsfolk seem to be capable of talking about. Would your highness honor me with a little demonstration?”  
Elsa unfolded her hands slowly, making a big show of moving slowly and deliberately. Prince Christian leaned in eagerly but pulled back in embarrassment when Elsa merely brushed a loose strand of hair back into place.   
“We both know the reason you are here,” Elsa said, tucking the strand in her braid. “let us not prolong the inevitable. I do not wish to hear any groveling or promises of compensation.”  
The prince’s face sank into a sad smile. “My Queen, you simply cannot keep ignoring us.” He walked over to the couch but did not lower himself onto it. He would not sit unless she allowed him. “We cannot let this matter continue to slide.”  
Elsa did not move or grant him permission to sit. “We are resolving this today, Prince Christian. I have no desire for this to hang over my kingdom any longer.”  
“Our kingdoms have been allies for over a century and you are letting a little dispute overthrow years of good cooperation?”  
“The only reason I called this meeting was because of that long-standing partnership between our nations. I wanted to give you a chance to defend your actions before I severed all ties.”  
It appeared these words had struck the prince. He stepped back, his chivalrous gaze waning for the briefest of seconds. “Defend my actions? It was my baby brother who is to blame.”  
Elsa had to fight hard to keep her hands ice-free. “Your brother tried to murder me.” Elsa said flatly. “He tried to strike Arendelle and claim it for himself. By all accepted definitions, he effectively committed an act of war. Had I been eager to take up arms, I would have taken it as such and returned the act swiftly. The men of Weselton committed a similar transgression and I cut off all ties to them as well. They have been our allies, however begrudgingly for nearly two centuries. But I could not forgive them. Do tell me, why should I spare the Isles the same treatment?”  
The prince glanced briefly at her hands, his eyes sparking in curiosity. “My little brother’s actions do not speak for his country.” He replied, a hint of bitterness in his voice. “He acted selfishly and childishly for personal gain only.”  
Elsa felt every muscle in her stomach tighten in an effort to hold the ice back at this. “He toyed with my sister.” Her voice had taken on a hint of ice that she made no effort to hide. “And he left her to die. That is not so easily forgiven as a mere power grab.”  
A brief flicker of pain contorted the prince’s features. “What my brother did is unforgivable, I understand! So punish him as we did if you wish! Do not punish the land that bears the rotten fruit! The Southern Isles have not wronged you, Hans has.”   
He paused, massaging the end of his sword hilt and breathing hard, trying to maintain his regality. It was several seconds before the conversation resumed. “Queen Elsa,” The prince began, his court manners flawlessly returning, “if I may be so bold, I would like to point out that your kingdom will be the one suffering more if trade is cut off. Your…unfortunate accident is a huge financial strain on the kingdom. Trading with the Isles again will help.” His voice held no hint of threat but the words carried all of Elsa’s worries and fears about her kingdom’s future.  
“And yet, you were the one to seek audience with me.” Elsa observed. She moved across the room, standing in front of the fire, turning her back to him. But she listened carefully. She did not think he would try anything beyond persuasion but she couldn’t be too certain. He hadn’t let go of his sword the entire meeting. Her left hand lay loosely by her side, an ice spike ready to spring into being in her hand if he showed so much as an inkling to act against her. “I was not aware the Isles were so attached to our limited partnership.”  
The prince sighed. “I requested this meeting not only to beg forgiveness but to inquire about the kingdom itself as well. My father has an odd attachment to your fair Arendelle and I know it would break his poor old heart if he were to hear you fell to ruin because his youngest foolishly ruined diplomatic relations. He has no intention of bring our nations to war or allowing our long-standing partnership to fade.” Christian paused, long enough that Elsa almost turned to look at him. “And I fully intend to carry out my father’s wishes.”  
Elsa did not acknowledge his dedication with a reply.   
“Arendelle is in a precarious position right now,” The prince continued. “facing two winters in one year?” Elsa closed her fists tightly as snow began to gather in her palms at his words. Again, his voice was not threatening, merely pointing out a fact. But it still made her uneasy. “Please my lady,” Christian continued “do not turn away a gift for the sake of pride.”  
Elsa stared into the fire, unable to accept that she was actually pondering his words. Trade with the Isles had always been strong. Never a staple of Arendelle’s economy but important nonetheless. Strengthening it would certainly help ease the stimulus deal up into that crucial area that would mean security.   
What would her father have done?  
As she turned the situation over in her mind, Elsa watched the flames curl and lick at the logs, smoke rising from the embers which glowed like eyes…  
Horrifying, Elsa realized just who she had been thinking about while staring at the fire. She forced her thoughts back to reality and glanced over her shoulder.  
The prince was still waiting patiently for her response, his polished court manners not slipping so much as an inch.  
Trying her very best to conceal her lapse in focus, Elsa turned back to the flames. “I will consider.” She said after a long pause. “But in my own time. Now please, see yourself out.”  
Prince Christian bowed deeply. Clearly, he had been expecting this. “Many thanks your majesty, I will return to my lodgings in Arendelle. Please call for me when you are ready to discuss.”  
As soon as the door clicked shut behind him, Elsa felt her entire frame shiver and turn limp. A tiny moan escaped her lips as she wrapped her trembling arms around herself. It was happening again.  
Elsa squeezed her eyes shut to avoid looking at the fire. She’d been trying so hard to forget what had happened at the ice palace when she’d gazed into those glowing coals of eyes. But it seemed like her meditation there had rewired her brain to make it impossible to forget for even an hour. Reminders snuck up on her at every possible moment. And when she did remember, the sensations were too much.  
Her heart would start to beat faster, her stomach would clench and that tiny flame she’d felt spring to life inside her when she’d stared into Theo’s eyes would breathe back to life and smolder painfully in her chest.  
Elsa tucked her head into her chest and breathed deeply, wishing for nothing more at that moment than her sister’s arms around her. Ever since her return, Anna had been sleeping next to her every night, holding her tightly. Elsa never told her, but having Anna there made the nightmares less scary. Her most frightening memories and fears kept resurfacing, dancing across her subconscious, breaking her sleep into tiny increments. But so long as Anna was there, Elsa could calm herself enough to drift back to sleep.   
It was only then, when she’d fallen asleep after the nightmares that dreams of fire and sand invaded her thoughts. They were not nightmares certainly, but they terrified Elsa regardless. In some, Theo was building a thick cage of sand around her, confining her. In most, she simply just stared at Elsa, her glowing red eyes full of roiling emotions and unspoken words piercing straight to Elsa’s soul and breathing life into that tiny flame in Elsa’s heart those eyes had lit in the ice palace. Then there was one dream where Theonia had been crying out for help and Elsa had been terrified that she couldn’t find her…  
Her eyes snapping open and her body straightening, Elsa released a torrent of snow at the flickering flames in the hearth. In a flash of steam, flames and snow vanished.  
It did nothing for her emotional turmoil.  
Elsa lowered herself to the hearth and sat back on her heels, curling and opening her palms as she pondered her next steps. Reopening trade with the Isles was unthinkable. Not after what Hans had done.  
She had to figure all this out. These feelings were a problem. Theonia was a problem. So were the Isles. She could solve problems. That was what she did.  
Elsa wrung her hands, not noticing that snow was beginning to fall down the chimney in her agitation. But the prince was right. Arendelle was suffering. Because of her. Unless some kind of hidden treasury was found or they somehow were able to triple trade with nearby nations, this winter could tear them apart. Reopening trade would ensure Arendelle’s survival. It could devastate Anna.  
Elsa glanced again at the portrait of her father that hung in the corner of the room. As always, the painting offered her nothing but bittersweet memories and the desire to live up to that legacy the subject had handed her.  
Could she risk losing Anna’s trust, trust she had only just been given back, for Arendelle?  
So lost in thought, Elsa didn’t see more icy threads creep along the bottom of her dress, imprinting more designs on the temple fabric. Anna would understand. This was for the good of all Arendelle. She’d understand. Right?  
***  
Kristoff was pacing in the ballroom, something he’d never thought he’d ever do, not even just for the hell of it. Now, it appeared to be the only thing he could do to stop himself from panicking.  
“…I know that this is what I want…ever since I met you…well, maybe not from the moment I met you but…” He stopped and took a deep breath. “…Anna. These past few weeks have been the best of my life. I know without a single doubt that you are the one for me. Would you do me the honor of standing in our grave and pledging our lives to the promise that we will not be alone in death?”  
Sven snorted and gave Kristoff a pointed look that he knew meant: ‘really? That’s how you’re going to say this?’  
“Stop it Sven, that’s not helping.”  
The reindeer stomped his foot and shook his head, the bells and ribbons Kristoff had adorned him with jingling and fluttering.  
“I don’t know how normal people propose!” Kristoff replied, throwing his hands in the air. “I was raised by trolls! They bury themselves in six feet of dirt for their weddings!”  
Sven let out a bellow that Kristoff knew was his best friend’s way of laughing. The sound echoed deafeningly in the empty ballroom.  
“Shut up…” He turned away from the decked out reindeer. “All I need from you on this is support, you make a useless Anna…”  
“That’s because he’s a reindeer!”  
Kristoff jumped at the voice then tried to still his racing heart as a snowman waddled into the room. “Olaf! Oh, wow. Olaf please don’t sneak up on me like that…” He brushed his hair out of his face.  
“Are you upset?” Olaf asked.  
Kristoff paused. “Huh?”  
“Elsa tells me never to sneak up on her when she’s upset.” Olaf told him. “But sometimes it’s hard to tell.”  
Kristoff crouched next to the snowman, feeling the cold air of his flurry against his face. “Has Elsa been upset?”  
Olaf shrugged. “When she stares at heat she looks different. I guess that means she’s upset. Sometimes she looks like she’s going to cry. Crying means she’s upset right?”  
Kristoff nodded, turning this information over in his mind. Elsa was troubled by something. There was the stimulus but somehow he doubted she would be brought to tears over something like that…  
Olaf had lost interest in their conversation when Kristoff didn’t reply. “What are you doing?” The snowman asked, looking at Sven. The reindeer snorted, a streamer hanging over his face flying up towards his antlers. “Why is Sven wearing bells?”  
“I’m…” Kristoff cleared his throat, hoping there was no quiver of fear in his voice. “I’m practicing for when I’m going to propose to Anna.”  
Olaf beamed. “Oh great!” he clapped his hands. “What does that mean?”  
“It’s…it’s very important.” Olaf still looked confused so Kristoff resigned himself to explaining more fully. “I’m going to ask her a very important question. And hope she says yes.”  
Kristoff stood up and straightened out his tunic. The plan was slowly all coming together. He had Elsa’s permission, now he just needed to wait long enough for Anna to be comfortable and plan carefully enough that the proposal was flawless. Perfect. Just because he wasn’t planning on popping the question anytime soon didn’t mean he couldn’t plan and practice.   
Olaf glanced around. “So where is Anna?” Clearly, he did not entirely understand just what was going on here.  
“I sent her on an errand for me.” Kristoff explained. Anna had been sent to the north edge of the city to find a very specific ice pick so that he could practice in peace. The stone crafted by the trolls hung heavily in Kristoff’s pocket and despite the bulge, he had to keep patting his pocket to assure himself it was there.   
His family had given it to him just before he’d left to find Elsa.   
“For Anna, when the time is right.” Bulda had said, pressing the ring into his palm like a peace offering for the terrible secrets the trolls had shared.  
Kristoff had it all crafted to perfection in his head: Gerda, of course, had already caught on and promised she would prepare her finest treats for the day should Kristoff only say the word. His lute would be tuned so precisely it would have made his old master cry. He was planning to enlist the help of several palace staff he’d befriended to help him move his sled into the courtyard garden and decorate it as best he could when the day finally came.   
He’d been trying out said decorations on Sven when this fiasco had started. Apparently, he wasn’t as smooth with words as he was with planning.  
“Why?” Olaf asked, a bright smile on his face.  
Kristoff gestured around the empty room. “So I can practice proposing!”  
“Why do you need to practice?”  
“I want to do this right.” Kristoff glared over his shoulder. “But Mr. Love Expert over here isn’t helping…” Sven chuckled again and snapped at a streamer dangling over his face. “I have to show Anna how much I care about her. How much I love her.”  
“Why does everyone think they need to keep proving their love to Anna?”  
“Huh?”  
“Elsa said the same thing just after the Thaw.” Olaf told the confused mountain man. “I told her Anna doesn’t need to be told how much you all love her, she has to be shown.” He shrugged happily. “But personally, I think Anna knows just how much you all love her.”  
As always, Kristoff was amazed by the animated snowman’s clear, innocent but entirely accurate observations of life. “You’re right Olaf…” Kristoff touched the ring through his pocket. “But I still want this to be special.”  
“Why?”  
“After what happened to her last time…with Hans.” He couldn’t help but spit the name out. “I need this to be special. I know we haven’t known each other that long but…but I think this could be forever. I want to be with her forever.” He licked his lips nervously. “I just hope she doesn’t think I’m rushing her…”  
The snowman nodded in understanding. Then he beamed as an idea came to him. “I’ll be Anna! So you can practice!” He waddled closer to Kristoff and looked up at him expectantly.  
Although far from ideal, Olaf certainly was a step up from a sarcastic reindeer.   
Kristoff knelt next to the snowman. “Anna,” He began, looking into Olaf’s wriggly, excited face and imagining it was Anna instead. It wasn’t too far of a stretch, he thought with a smile. “I’ve been thinking about this for a long time and…I know last time didn’t work out so well for you but…” he reached into his pocket. “I’m hoping to replace that bad memory with a good one.” Kristoff tried to free the ring from his pocket but his cuff link (who the hell put cuff-links on a shirt like this?) got caught on the inside of his pocket.   
“Anna…will…you…” His speech fumbled as he struggled to free the ring from his pocket. Why had Bulda crafted it so thickly?  
“Would….you do me…the honor…come on!!!...of being my… ah!”  
With a yank, Kristoff had finally managed to jerk his hand free of his pocket by snapping the cuff-link. Unfortunately, the sudden break startled him so much that his grip on his prize loosened and the ring clattered to the floor, starting to roll.  
“I’ll get it!” Olaf sprang after the rolling rock with both hands outstretched.  
“Olaf be careful! Oof!” Kristoff had stood up too fast, slipped on a rouge bell and fallen heavily into one of the thick ballroom curtains. He flailed about, the curtain keeping him from hitting the floor but mercilessly wrapping itself around him as payback.  
Kristoff waved as best he could. “Sven! A little help?”  
But his plea fell on deaf ears: the reindeer had finally managed to catch a streamer and was indulging in gnawing incessantly on it, ignoring everything else.  
Olaf almost caught the ring but due to its shape, it began to roll in tight circles on the ballroom floor. The snowman, not realizing he could stop it by simply standing still, ended up running in a tight circle with his arms still outstretched towards the precious stone. Kristoff moaned as helplessness overcame him and he sagged into the curtain’s restrictive embrace. This…was a disaster. At least it was only a very early rehearsal. How was he going to pull this off? Forget Anna’s comfort, it would take him years to be comfortable enough to propose to her.  
So caught up were each of them in their own activities that none of them heard the door to the ballroom opening. But Kristoff heard the voice accompanying it.  
Before he could detangle himself from the curtain, Anna entered the room.   
“Kristoff? There was no way that merchant had the pick you wanted. He told me he’d never heard of such a thing and when I insisted…” Her eyes swept the scene: Olaf chasing a ring in tight circles, Kristoff tangled in a curtain, Sven chewing happily on the end of a streamer wrapped around his antlers. “What’s going on?” She felt the need to ask it slowly.  
Kristoff looked up at her. The moment he saw her, all his planning, all his carefully crafted words and any possible excuse for his current predicament flew right out the window and danced mockingly across the fjord on the breeze.   
But he didn’t mind at all.  
***  
Unable to keep staring pensively into a cold hearth, Elsa had retired from the drawing room to make her way towards the kitchens and Kai’s promise of strong tea.  
I will not make a rash decision. She kept telling herself, wringing her hands to will the snow to stop forming. I will think it through, I will gather all the information I can, make my calculations…then I will talk to Prince Christian again.  
She was still disgusted that she was devoting her precious time to this.  
And she knew, ultimately, the decision would depend entirely upon Anna’s reaction to the news.  
As she made her way down the hallways towards the kitchen, her mind switching to wishful thoughts of black tea, she heard a dark, menacing voice. “trust me…Queen Elsa will fold.”  
She halted, thinking that someone else was in the corridor, trying to recognize the unfamiliar voice.   
“We are not going to retreat, we are going to wait her out like good diplomats….I don’t care if it takes all year. Eventually she will realize this is the only way out.” It sounded eerily similar to Prince Hans…  
Silently, Elsa slid into the opening of the servant’s stairwell at the end of the hall, glad once again that she had chosen to wear her temple dress today to better melt into the shadows. The voice became louder as she moved and she realized that she was hearing something just outside the castle walls, along the delivery alley next to the kitchens. “She’s hiding something.” The voice continued. “There is a treasure trove of wealth that Arendelle is coveting. I mean to unlock that, to restore glory to my family name.” The voice paused, then acquired a hint of pain. “I will not let that which I love continue to suffer.”   
Elsa closed her eyes and pressed her ear against the stones, as if her proximity would somehow help the sound travel through the solid wall better.   
“I must be returning to my lodgings...my brother will be waiting for my message.” Elsa heard the sound of footsteps on cobblestones, retreating into the streets beyond the castle.  
Tea forgotten, Elsa hurriedly slipped down the servant’s stairwell, forever thankful that Kai had left it unlocked at both ends. She was very certain that it was Prince Christian she’d just heard beyond the wall but she had to be sure.  
Upon reaching the bottom, she slid the door open and slipped out, racing for the wall between the stairwell in the alley. She ducked and found the old peephole Anna had discovered when they were children just in time to make out a familiar sword disappearing around the corner towards the marketplace.  
Clearly her sister’s intuition had been right.  
The Southern Isles were not just here to apologize and reopen trade.  
Maybe it was her desperate wish for this crisis to resolve itself or maybe it was simply from lack of sleep and proper nutrition. Whatever the reason, Elsa didn’t even think, she conjured a small set of ice stairs and gracefully clambered over the wall. Once on the other side she took off after the prince’s form. She had to know who he had been talking to. Who else could be a potential enemy.  
With quick, quiet footsteps, the Queen set off towards town.  
***  
The Arendelle market was best known for its pervasive odor. Even though the kingdom traded regularly with a great diversity of countries, Arendelle goods were best represented in the commoners’ market. And Arendelle’s main export (apart from ice) was fish. Even the thick walls of Arendelle Castle could not keep out the stench of fresh fish when the wind was just right. When she was younger, Elsa had used to open her window on such days, inhaling the slimy, salty scent and listening to the chatter and bustle of her subjects below.   
She had often daydreamed of walking among them, perhaps as a fisherman’s daughter or a silk merchant from the far East. Haggling about prices, darting from stall to stall…   
That was impossible of course, a queen could not mingle like that in such a place, especially not one with her tenuous grasp of interacting with other people in public.   
Knowing this, Elsa took a moment to conjure herself a hood of black ice to cover her obvious hair before she stepped around the corner and dove into the bustling square after the prince. It had the intended effect: with the plain temple dress and matching hood hiding her head, Elsa was able to slip in among the people she ruled, to be bumped and jostled and yelled at by merchants like anyone else would have been. The feeling was strangely…liberating. And also a bit terrifying. She clenched her hands tightly in her dress, tracing the patterns along the bottom to keep herself calm. Twice, she nearly loosed ice by accident as someone yelled right next to her or jostled her particularly hard.   
But, Elsa realized, this was her challenge. To protect her kingdom from the potential threat of the Southern Isles, she had to brave and survive this discomfort. She focused on dodging between people, keeping her gaze down as much as possible to dart and weave among the bodies of the market.  
Elsa caught sight of a familiar tunic near a parchment stall at the edge of the market just as she was beginning to adjust to walking in crowd. She ducked forward and wove her way towards the stall as inconspicuously as possible, keeping to the shadows behind the stands along the castle walls. Ducking into a dark side-alley, she peered over a heap of fishy crates at the stall in question.  
She could see him now. It was indeed Prince Christian. And he was…buying ink?  
“300 for a cord?! That’s robbery!”  
The nearby voice made Elsa jump and she whirled around. The stall behind her was mostly hidden from view by large stacks of firewood but Elsa could guess well enough what that local merchant was selling. The voice was that of a disgruntled customer she couldn’t see.  
“My stock was exhausted during the freeze! This is all I have left.” Elsa shifted slightly and caught a brief glimpse of the merchant: a head of black hair with a small bald spot along the back of his head. “Don’t you province folks usually cut your own?”  
Elsa turned back to her surveillance, watching Prince Christian select a thick roll of parchment from the merchant and dig through his purse for coins. But she could not block out the loud voices behind her.   
“Please, my good man, I need this wood. We’ve exhausted the supply in the province grounds and trips further up the mountain will be impossible once the snows start!” The customer explained.   
Elsa really shouldn’t have been listening to this conversation, not when more important things like keeping an eye on the prince were at hand. But the next comment made her forget Prince Christian entirely.  
“Why don’t you just ask the queen to hold them back for you?” The merchant’s voice dripped with contempt and Elsa’s heart plummeted like she could see the obvious sneer on his face. Elsa had never heard any of her subjects speak of anyone in the royal family like that.  
“I’m not sure that’s how it works…”The customer replied, sounding a little ashamed at the other’s response.”I think she can only create the snow, not hold it back.”  
“What a useless power... does that mean winters will be worse?”  
Elsa suddenly realized she had turned around entirely and was now watching the bobbing bald spot of the merchant rather than the back of Prince Christian’s head.   
“She’s had these powers for years and winter hasn’t changed!” The customer said. “And she’s aware of the problems that she caused and she’s trying to fix them. You heard her speech this morning, her stimulus bill will provide aide to all to help us through this winter.”   
The other man scoffed, clearly skeptical of Elsa’s heart-felt promises.   
“At least she’s not the treacherous Prince Hans.” The shopper commented, as if trying to reconcile their differences.  
The merchant actually laughed at this. “Prince Hans at least had the courage to walk among us. Under his rule, everyone had a blanket to his name when he needed it… and where was our queen when that happened? Hiding in the mountains?”  
Elsa’s defender had no reply to that.  
Her mind whirling, Elsa swept away before either of the two could turn around to see her lurking in the shadows behind the firewood. Prince Christian was long gone but she found she no longer cared so much about following him.  
Her feet pounded dully down the dark alley, subconsciously guiding her back to the palace gates. Once she was far enough away from the market, Elsa tore off her hood.  
Firewood.   
She twisted the icy garment in her hands until it crinkled and crunched. She hadn’t received any reports about that. It hadn’t even been considered in the stimulus deal. How could she have overlooked something so essential?   
Because no one asked. No one writing the reports considered it important enough to write down either.   
If the surrounding provinces were already picked clean, it could be years before a steady supply of local wood could be reestablished.  
Elsa’s hands continued to worry the ice in her hands. This revelation practically demanded that they accept the Southern Isles’ offer. Where else were they supposed to get the necessary wood from? Corona might be convinced to supply some but that could take weeks to arrive…  
The economics and diplomatic uncertainties of the entire afternoon unsettled Elsa.   
But it was the words about Prince Hans that bothered her the most.   
Realizing the hood was now little more than a weak conglomeration of fine ice shards, Elsa dropped it to let it melt on the cobblestones.   
Hans. The very thought of him made her feel like she wanted to run away again.  
He’d cared for the people while her out-of-control powers had her cowering in the mountains. Hiding from responsibility, playing with her powers like a child. And he’d been here, picking up the pieces of her kingdom while she ignorantly danced in the cold air.  
He was trying to steal my kingdom…win their trust with kindness and promises.   
It would appear that with some, he had succeeded.  
He was a better sovereign than she.  
Elsa entered the castle gates, where more merchants were set up, taking advantage of the new open-gates policy to gather in the castle grounds to sell their wares. Without the hood, everyone immediately recognized her. Several people called out cheerfully in greeting or waved, confused that the queen was entering the palace rather than exiting it.   
To Elsa, the greetings felt hollow. Insincere.   
She crossed the courtyard and walked to the doors without acknowledging or replying to anyone.  
As she entered the cool darkness of the castle again, someone tackled her.  
Elsa was fully prepared to unleash the full fury of her pent-up emotions coupled with her shock at being grabbed so tightly. But a familiar, high-pitched shriek stopped her just in time.  
“OH MY GOD ELSA!!! KRISTOFF JUST ASKED ME!! OH MY GOD, HE ASKED ME TO MARRY HIM!!!!!”  
Elsa felt her chest try to rumble with laughter in her sister’s tight hold, all her previous anxiety melting away at the pleasant sensation. “…did he really think this was enough time…?”  
It had barely been two weeks since they’d talked at the lake.  
Anna released her and stepped back slightly to look at her. “You talked to him about this?” Anna’s eyes widened in shock and betrayal. “you KNEW?!”  
Elsa bit back a mischievous smile, helped by her lingering discomfort with human touch. Though they had been getting better at it, the sisters hadn’t quite worked their level of intimacy up to spontaneous hugs yet. Anna had patiently tried several more commonplace touches and Elsa still found it difficult not to panic unless she was properly prepared for it. But at least this time Elsa hadn’t frozen half the room in surprise. She supposed her walk through the market had helped with that.  
“He asked my permission to ask for your hand.” Elsa told Anna in response to her sister’s incredulity.   
Anna opened and closed her mouth several times, no sound coming out. Elsa stifled a giggle behind her hand.   
“When?” Anna finally managed to ask.  
“When he brought me back.” Elsa replied.  
Silence descended as the raw topic was brought up. The sisters stared at each other blankly.  
Elsa wrung her hands as gently as she could. She still had not told Anna anything about the temple, the other hosts or her two-day absence. She knew it hurt Anna that she was dangling such a secret in front of her with no explanation but she could not bring herself to tell Anna the truth. Something about the thought of Anna knowing left a sticky taste in her mouth.  
Anna for her part, was displaying remarkable grace and an uncharacteristic patience regarding Elsa’s silence on the matter. She was waiting her out, Elsa knew. Which was surprising given that Elsa was well-known for her impeccable patience. After all, she’d waited fourteen years to hug her little sister again.  
As further proven by the fact that Anna broke the stretching silence between them. “So…” Anna nervously tapped one foot. “what did you say? To Kristoff.”  
“Anna…”  
Her sister’s head shot up at Elsa’s imploring tone. “You said…yes…?” She asked, a hint of hope in her voice.  
“Anna, your answer is the only one that matters.” Elsa replied.  
Anna shook her head. “I’d never marry anyone without your blessing.”   
Elsa wanted to cry from the conviction with which Anna said those words. “Don’t deny him an answer because of me.” She advised Anna, placing a gentle hand on her shoulder. “He doesn’t deserve that.”  
Anna beamed. “Oh I already said yes.”  
Elsa blinked. “That…you…I.” Unable to find the right words, she just forced a regal smile into place.  
Of course, it didn’t fool her sister for a second.  
“Don’t do that Elsa, I can tell something is bothering you.” She stepped forward and gently stroked Elsa’s shoulder. “What is it?”  
Elsa took a half step away, her mind trying desperately to make some kind of decision. Of course she was happy that Anna and Kristoff would be together, she’d said as much to the mountain man herself. So why did it feel like she was about to lose control?  
“is it that I’m rushing things with Kristoff?” Anna asked quickly. “Because this is nothing like what happened with Hans! I promise! Kristoff is so different, we…”  
But Anna had seen the flicker of anger at the mention of Han’s name.  
“it’s the Isles, isn’t it?  
Elsa clenched her hands into fists, ice leaking between her palms as the events of the day weighed heavily on her.   
Hans. She didn’t think she’d come to hate him more than she already did.   
Completely ignoring the ice, Anna gently took her sister’s hand and tangled their fingers together.  
“Come on,” she said, gently tugging her sister towards the kitchen. “Let’s get you some food and tea, you look like hell.”  
Three cups of tea later, and a much clearer conscious about the state of Arendelle, Elsa felt like a weight had been removed from her shoulders by telling Anna all about her meeting with Prince Christian. She hadn’t mentioned her encounter with the fireplace or her excursion into town. Both of them would require far too much explanation. And the last thing she wanted was for Hans to be brought up again.  
But even with these massive details still weighing on her heart, Elsa still felt immensely better.  
How had she dealt with so many secrets all by herself for so long?  
“So the Isles do want a deal…” Anna said, leaning back in her chair. She picked up a cookie and munched thoughtfully on it. “And they still can’t be trusted.” She continued, spraying crumbs across the table. Elsa found herself smiling at her sister’s adorable lack of manners. And also at how quickly and completely things had changed between them.  
“Reopening trade with them will guarantee that the stimulus pulls through.” Elsa told her, cupping her tea in her hands, enjoying the warmth.   
“But you don’t want to.” Anna guessed.  
Elsa shook her head. “Not without more information. I don’t trust Prince Christian.”   
“Glad we agree on that…” Anna picked up another cookie and stuffed the whole thing in her mouth. Elsa didn’t even bother to stifle her giggle.  
This was the first time they were discussing diplomacy together, the first time they were dealing with Arendelle business as a team. And the first time they were enjoying a secret snack in the kitchen in fourteen years.  
Elsa felt her heart swell. Anna really had grown up. And here she was discussing courses of action while still managing to be her adorable, uncultured self.   
Anna swallowed the large mouthful before she spoke again. “So what can we do?” She asked Elsa. “We need to make sure that the people have what they need this winter without putting Arendelle in danger.”   
For the first time all day, Elsa finally had a clear idea of what she needed to do to work on this problem.   
“Anna…” Her sister turned to her, clearly worried by the serious tone in the queen’s voice.  
Elsa took a deep breath, still astounded at what was about to come out of her mouth.   
“I think it’s time I met Dagrun.”  
***  
This was definitely the oddest place Elsa had ever had a meeting.   
She pulled her ice hood tighter over her hair as two loud servants bustled past, melting into the shadows under Arendelle bridge. While still technically inside the castle grounds, the bridge over a small offshoot of the Great Arendelle River didn’t get a lot of traffic except by the servants who collected firewood. It was more for the convenience of the royal family, for when they wanted to cross from the castle to the woods without leaving the gates. Elsa had not been out here since before her parents died.   
She stepped back out into the half light as the voices faded, her shoes sliding a little in the crumbling dirt of the river bed. Since it was still late summer, the river was running incredibly low, allowing Elsa to stand in the shadow under the stone bridge.   
Waiting for a child spy her sister had enlisted.  
It was all too unreal.  
She waited as patiently as she could, still not fully believing she was actually doing this. She was about to ask children to spy on her people. To protect them. She kept reminding herself. The excuse was sounding weaker and weaker.   
The portrait in the drawing room came to mind. Would father have done this? Would this make him proud?  
Elsa experienced an intense longing for Anna to be at her side. Anna had decided not to come mostly because she wanted to spend more time with Kristoff solidifying their engagement but also because she had decided that, it would probably be best if Elsa met the Ice Informers on her own. After all, they were a secretive group, and Anna knew Elsa had some secrets she did not wish to share in front of her sister.  
The sun was setting. Still, Elsa saw no one.  
“Queen Elsa?”  
Her head snapped up at the soft voice.   
A small head of curly hair was peering down at her from the arches of the bridge. The mouth attached to it smiled brightly at her.  
“Hi!”  
The boy swung himself out over the lip of the bridge and carefully and effortlessly climbed down the stone supports. He hopped the last few feet and landed in the soft dirt with a quiet poof.  
In the fading light, Elsa could make out his features: he was small and thin but with a rounded face and bright green eyes. His unruly hair was tightly curled and very fair, nearly as white as Elsa’s except for the sandy streaks through it. He couldn’t have been older than six or seven.  
Looking at him, Elsa begrudgingly admitted to herself that, had it been her who’d met him, she probably would have named him Dagrun as well. He looked very similar to the illustrated book the princesses had read years ago. In addition, he had an air about him that brought to mind his namesake: he was quiet and timid but seemed to brim with strength underneath that was just waiting for him to mature enough for it to burst forth.   
Elsa pulled her hood back slightly, letting a bit of her platinum hair poke through. He smiled at her but this one seemed more like an awed amazement than happiness.  
“Wow…you’re beautiful.”  
Elsa smiled kindly at him for the compliment. “You’d be Dagrun then, I presume?”  
He closed his mouth and bowed his head slightly, nodding an affirmation.  
“I’m glad to finally meet you.” Elsa said genuinely. “My sister has told me much about you.”  
Dagrun blushed and looked up at her. His expression clearly indicated he had something he wanted to ask but felt too shy to speak up.  
“What is it?” Elsa asked kindly.  
Dagrun bit his lower lip and traced one foot nervously in the dirt. “Could you…? Show me the ice?” He asked in barely a whisper, meeting her eyes.  
Although she could see he was clearly nervous making this request she noted that he held himself proudly and boldly.  
She found herself liking him more and more.   
Elsa held out a hand and effortlessly sent several glowing snowflakes in his direction. They danced above the amazed boy’s head before sinking to the ground and melting in the warm soil.  
Elsa closed her hand. “Shall we get to business then?” She asked him.  
Dagrun nodded. “I brought some friends, as Princess Anna requested.” The boy said. He glanced up at the bridge and whistled softly. A small girl and an older boy that Elsa had not noticed stepped silently from the bridge overhead and slid down the embankment into the shadows to join them.  
“Princess Anna calls them Ichtaca and Reba.” Dagrun told Elsa indicating the boy and the girl respectively as they came close.  
Elsa resisted the urge to roll her eyes at her sister’s cliché choice of names. She’d taken these from a book about a brother and sister who run away from a slave master to hide in the woods.  
The boy, Ichtaca was taller than Dagrun by about a head and with substantially more muscle. Elsa placed him at maybe ten years old. He had hard, brown eyes and close-cropped black hair but Elsa saw a distinct warmth in his gaze that one attributed to fathers and men who were fond of animals.   
“Ichtaca is my big brother!” Dagrun told Elsa. “Well not really, but we’re like brothers! He’s working on getting more kids from the docks involved.” Ichtaca smiled politely at Elsa and nodded his head. Dagrun gestured at the girl. “Reba’s charge of makin’ sure everyone knows what they’re doing and how to do it.”  
Small and slight, and obviously not much older than Dagrun, Reba was quite an enigma. She had a distinct foreign look about her, the country of which Elsa could not place. Her face was closed off and emotionless, she watched everything with fast, sharp green eyes that seemed to pierce the darkness. Clearly she was more comfortable watching and listening that she was leading. Her hair was also cropped very short, very much like Theo’s was but the stubble was a brilliant shade of ginger-red. She met Elsa’s gaze and an understanding seemed to pass between the two of them. In many ways, Elsa saw a bit of herself reflected in the young girl.   
She turned back to Dargun. “How many of you are there now?”  
“Princess Anna told us never to let her know that.” Ichtaca said quietly in a deep voice that was suited to a boy much older than he. Reba nodded in agreement. Elsa was starting to doubt that the girl could speak at all.   
“But we have a lot of friends.” Ichtaca continued. “All of them trustworthy and clever. They wont let us down.”  
“I know they wont.” Elsa told him. “I trust my sister’s judgment.”She held out the cloth bag she had brought with her. “I brought this for you.” Inside it were clothes, a bit of food and a few small toys she’d enjoyed as a child. She saw all of their eyes light up upon seeing it. All of their clothes were ragged and either too big or too small (Ichtaca’s pants barely came to the middle of his shins and Reba’s dress had two long tears in the side). They were not starving but clearly hungry.  
Elsa promised herself that once Arendelle was financially stable again, she’d do whatever she could to help children such as these.   
Dagrun took the bag from her but did not open it as Elsa had expected him to. The three of them waited patiently for her to speak.  
The queen closed her left fist, feeling the cold swirl around her closed fingers. “First things first,” Elsa began, a little surprised at the childrens’ commitment. “I’m making you an official Arendelle service. You know what that means?”  
Dagrun glanced at Ichtaca and then they both looked up at the queen with large eyes. Reba’s gaze softened ever so slightly in surprise.  
“It means you uphold the honor of Arendelle.” Elsa said. She opened her palm to reveal three small glittering snowflakes resting on her palm. “I’m appointing you three as the heads of this new service, henceforth known as the Ice Informers. Our safety is in your hands and you carry Arendelle’s name proudly on your chests.”  
The children stepped forward and timidly took the badges from Elsa’s palm. They carefully stuck them on the undersides of their collars; out of sight but able to be felt by the wearer at all times. Elsa silently approved. These children clearly knew the importance of keeping a low profile for this kind of work.  
Dagrun and Ichtaca were carefully examining their snowflakes, as if they were medals of honor given only to the bravest soldiers. They clearly felt honored to wear them. Reba showed little emotion but Elsa saw a tiny flicker of pride cross the girl’s face as she gently ran a finger over the new badge.  
Dagrun looked up at Elsa when he’d finished admiring his badge. “What do you want us to do for you?”  
“You know the visitor from the Isles? Prince Christian?”  
The boys nodded and Reba gave a quiet, affirming noise.  
Elsa took a deep breath, knowing that once she said this, there would be no going back. “I want to know what he’s doing: who he meets with, who is working for him, messages he sends, everything. You will deliver that report once a week to relay what you have discovered to myself or Anna, no one else.”  
The three children nodded in understanding. “Anna was right…” Elsa continued. “something is going on. I do not want to put my people in jeopardy by being too quick to solidify agreements.”  
Dagrun grinned. “Don’t worry, my lady. We’ll be so close but so invisible he wont even realize we’re there!” He picked up the bag and saluted her so sloppily Elsa had to stifle a giggle. The Ice Informers began to head deeper into the shadows under the bridge.  
“Another thing.” Elsa called after them.  
They all stopped and turned to face her. “Yes ‘um?” Dagrun asked.  
“Everything you hear from the townspeople, anything about Prince Hans or worries about the winter…please report that to me as well.”  
Elsa watched as the three exchanged a look.   
“Just ask Princess Anna.” Reba told Elsa in a voice that despite its thick accent, sounded as regal as Elsa’s did. “We already report that to her once a week.”  
Then they scampered off, under the bridge and up the embankment into the gathering darkness, leaving the queen alone with her thoughts.  
***  
After the meeting with the Ice Informers, Elsa found herself, in a rare moment of solitude, wandering towards the castle library instead of returning to the pile of paperwork on her desk or seeking out Anna.  
In her childhood, when not stuck in her room surrounded by unwanted icy creations, Elsa had practically lived among the musty books and creaking old shelves of the Arendelle Royal Library.   
Elsa entered the room quietly, like how one would enter a church. Someone had lit a fire in the hearth, probably Kai, anticipating her use of the room. Elsa was tempted to put it out after what had happened last time she’d been around fire but stopped herself. She needed the light.  
She had several things on her mind after this incredibly long day. First and foremost was Anna’s engagement. But that was hardly a cause for worry or stress. Elsa chuckled as she recalled the story Anna had told her about catching Kristoff in the middle of a proposal rehearsal. It appeared that his tendency to plan and prepare far ahead had been his undoing on that front.  
Elsa had to stifle a full-on giggle as she thought of what poor Kristoff must be having to endure at the hands of her sister right now. While she knew Anna was not about to have the wedding next week, she knew that wouldn’t stop her little sister from planning everything, right down to the color of the napkins.  
She’d let them have their time alone. They deserved it. And she still didn’t trust herself not to panic at the thought of Anna finally being married off.   
Anna’s not going anywhere. Elsa reminded herself. She promised. And Kristoff would never do that to her. They will be so happy together.  
Elsa shook herself out of her thoughts on that matter and returned to her task at hand: some much needed research.   
Now that she finally had a moment to herself, all the questions that had been shoved to the back of her mind as she worked were worming their way forward again, demanding her attention.  
First, she wanted to look into Prince Christian’s claim that Arendelle was ‘hiding wealth’. Elsa had reviewed and in some cases, written extensive reports of all of Arendelle’s tradable goods and country services. After the freeze, everything possible was being utilized to its fullest. She had made sure of that last week.   
Mentally, Elsa estimated where the best books would be for that pursuit. Could there have been something Arendelle had that her father hadn’t told her about? Had he even been aware of it himself?  
Second, she wanted to search for any mention of the temple in Arendelle’s history books. Judging by its position relative to the North Mountain, the temple could have been situated just on the edge of Arendelle’s north-west border with the untamed wilderness. If so, she may be able to claim sovereignty over it. She was willing to try anything to free herself from its influence.   
Then of course, there was the question she had been trying to ignore that had been burning in her mind for the last two weeks: was Theonia one of her subjects? All of the ice gatherers of the Northern Province where Kristoff had been raised typically hailed from Arendelle’s northern villages and cities.   
Against her decided priorities, Elsa found herself wandering over to the ledgers containing the familial legacy of Arendelle. They were stored just to the left of the fireplace, along the eastern wall of the library. The castle’s birth records were by no means comprehensive, given that they were only taken once every six years or so and relied on the honesty and memory of the people they encountered but Elsa could probably send a messenger to the northern villages to inquire about births twenty some-odd years ago. It was worth a shot if it could somehow give her control over the summer host’s decisions.   
She ran her fingers over the ledgers from 20 years ago, contemplating where to start. Exactly how old was Theonia?  
“I like this library.”  
Elsa whirled, releasing ice so quickly her head spun.  
Garret didn’t move an inch, despite the wickedly sharp icicles that now surrounded him in a barricade, all pointing at his throat. “It’s nice and sturdy, solid walls, thick shelves. You could get lost in here.” He was sprawled casually on one of the room’s couches, wearing his temple robe and completely weaponless. He’d been so still and silent that Elsa had walked right past him in the gloom of the darkened library.  
Elsa took a breath to calm down. “What are you doing here Garret?” She asked, waving the ice away. “Don’t you know better than to sneak up on me?”  
“Couldn’t resist.” The man said, sitting up straight as the ice faded. “I haven’t had years of practice with you. And I wanted to see how the Mother’s grace would protect me from ice.”   
Elsa smiled but let it quickly fade when she realized that his face lacked any hint of humor.  
“I always loved books…” Garret said conversationally, standing and striding to the bookshelves. The light from the fire licked at his form but was quickly devoured by the black clothes he wore. His eyes grazed slowly over the titles, hungrily drinking in the names. “They were always the perfect escape when life became too much. You don’t happen to have Edwin the Wise’s The Price of Penalty do you?”  
Elsa knew every title in the library. “Yes. Why?”  
“I saw it mentioned in one of the temple books and I’ve been dying to get my hands on it since.” He turned to face her. “Would you mind terribly if I borrowed it?”  
Elsa walked over to the shelf he was standing in front of and pulled the book down without looking.   
“Why are you here, Garret?”   
His eyes glanced ambiguously down at her attire then shot back up to her eyes. “I’m just checking in.” He said. He took the book from her and turned away.  
“You snuck in.” Elsa accused him.  
“Surprisingly, it’s not very hard.” He plopped back down on the couch, cracking the book open and running a finger down the contents. “You might want to look into that. And even though it is polite, I couldn’t just walk through the gates, the guards would have stopped me. Or asked my name and affiliation. How would Arendelle’s queen have explained meeting an unknown, title-less man alone after dark?”  
“I wouldn’t have let you in.” Elsa replied, crossing back to the ledgers and fighting the urge to have the Guardian thrown out right now.  
Garret nodded. “And that was the second problem.” Garret flicked a few pages and scanned the text with his eyes. “This is why it is easier to stay at the temple.” He commented off-handedly.  
Elsa turned back to the ledgers in front of her. “Not for me.” She resumed her search, eyes scanning the shelves of records.  
“Looking for something?”  
She glanced over her shoulder at Garret. He was still absorbed in his book but she got the idea his true attention was elsewhere. “Nothing that would concern you.” Elsa replied, pulling down a record from twenty years ago and opening it to a random page.   
Garret stood up, leaving the book on the couch behind him. “Anything that concerns you, now concerns me.” He came up behind Elsa and briefly examined the ledger over her shoulders.   
“Theonia will be 21 come the winter solstice.” He supplied helpfully.  
Elsa felt herself stiffen guiltily. “I wasn’t..!”  
“Yes you were.” He grinned at her as she made to protest. “Don’t worry, I wont tell her.”  
“Why would she care?” Elsa found herself snapping even as the thought of Theo made her hands tremble.  
Garret noticed the shaking but gave no indication that he knew what it was for. “She likes to know what’s going on, what threats could potentially arise so she can know how best to respond…”  
The description was so uncannily similar to Elsa’s current state of being that she wanted to scream.  
“If she finds out you’re trying to gain control over her, she may drag you back and lock you away.” Garret said in that same conversational tone.  
“I’m in control.” Elsa reminded him in a carefully calm voice. “I don’t need to be locked away again.”  
Garret shook his head. “It’s not just that.” He stepped away from her and walked towards the fire. Elsa turned to watch him. “Do you really think we’re insisting because of some neurotic tendency Theo has? Don’t answer that….”  
Elsa couldn’t help a small smile twitch at her features as he threw that last part over his shoulder.  
“No host can be tied to a nation the way you are.” Garret continued. “What if a war were to break out? Who would you fight for?”  
“Arendelle.”  
Garret winced at her unabashed, immediate reply. “Exactly. And your side would not lose. You could forge an empire, destroy any and all foes with a wave of your hand...”  
He stared into the flickering flames, letting his words sink in. The light lit up his features softly as if afraid to completely illuminate him.  
“But I will not.” Elsa finally replied to break the tense silence. “I have no desire to expand our borders or start any conflicts.”  
“And you think your good word will keep other nations satisfied? While here you are trying to forcefully take over the temple?”  
Elsa found her head dipping slightly in shame.  
Garret continued to stare into the fire. “We not only lock you away to keep you safe and in control but to keep the nations of the world content as well. Out here, you could be seen as a weapon of war, a tyrant. People would enslave you in order to ensure the outcome of a war.” He turned slightly to look at her. “These are the things Theo thinks about all the time. Everything that could possibly happen because you are outside her protection.”  
The inevitable mention of the fire-host did nothing to improve Elsa’s mood. “It’s not her job to protect me,” Elsa practically growled. “I am perfectly capable of…”  
“Theo’s job as Head Councilor is to bring you all together and make sure you stay together.” Garret interrupted her harshly. “Out of the possibility of danger or the temptations of war and power. Mine is to keep you all safe.” He stepped away from the light and crossed back over to her. “Your only job is to make our jobs easier.”  
Elsa stared him down as he approached her. “Theo was the one who told me to come back here.” She told his hard black eyes.  
“She acted rashly and most likely without the Mother’s consent.”  
“So have you come to drag me back?” Elsa wondered if he’d actually be capable of such a thing. She couldn’t imagine how his whole paralysis thing worked but she was willing to bet it was slower than her ice.  
But Garret made no move against her. Instead he sighed and looked away from her. “No. Even if I wanted to, I couldn’t. It is not the Mother’s wish, apparently.” The Guardian glanced at her. “No, I merely made the three-day journey here on foot to talk.”  
Elsa was surprised. “About what?”   
He fixed her with a glare Elsa could only describe as terrifyingly harsh. Defensively, she took a step back, her hip hitting the lower shelf of the archive.   
“I don’t like to see my girls upset.” Garret told her in a low voice. “Whatever you did to Theo back at the ice palace, she’s still suffering from it.”  
“I didn’t do anything!” Elsa protested.  
Garret was still glaring but it had softened slightly. “You lied to us. That’s all I can get out of Theo.”  
Her forehead creased in confusion. “Lied to you? How? About what?”   
“That’s why I’m asking. What did you tell her there?”  
Elsa threw her hands in the air. “Ask her! One minute she was caressing my ice and the next she was flying away on a tornado after I mentioned my little sister being on her own here…”  
“Your sister?” Garret interrupted, his voice seeming to slice through the darkness of the library. Those two words seemed to snap the entire room into awareness of the two. The fire even popped in response.   
“Yes. Anna. My sister. The princess of Arendelle.” Elsa felt the need to add that last part. Why was her having a sister getting this odd disbelieving action from all of them? Surely they’d had families as well?  
The guardian paused at her words, his eyes widening. “…You never mentioned Anna...” He said slowly, his voice shaking. His entire frame seemed to deflate slightly as if he were shrinking back in fear.  
“Was it important?” Elsa asked.  
Garret stared evenly at her, searching her face carefully as if he were looking for a one particular needle in a set. But after a moment, he sighed and stepped back, looking away from Elsa. He said nothing.  
Silence descended on them as Garret returned to his spot in front of the fire and stared into the flames. He had his arms folded tightly against his chest. Elsa was instantly reminded of her father when he was deeply troubled by something.  
She stepped closer to him until she could see his conflicted face in the flickering light. “My place is here, Garret. With my sister and my kingdom. Surely you can understand that. They need me.”  
“We need you.” He said quietly but in a voice like iron.  
“Garret,” Elsa began. “I understand how important this is, really I do. But it was never my fight. I will assist you in whatever way I can but I will not leave Arendelle. I can’t just abandon my kingdom.” The events and revelations of the day swirled in her mind. “Especially not now.”  
“Elsa, the sake of the entire realm is in jeopardy here,” Garret told her, still looking deep into the flames. “We are testing fate by waiting, hoping that Autumn’s host and Død will not snap at each other one too many times and trigger a disaster. If you do not find Isen and come to some kind of agreement with her soon, we wont be able to retrieve Autumn and convene the Council.”  
“I can cast my ice well enough without Isen’s help.” Elsa reminded him.  
Garret rounded on her, his arms dropping to his sides. “That’s only half the battle. Once we have Autumn, the real challenge will be convincing Død to calm down. And that may take all the spirits.”  
Elsa tipped her head in acknowledgment. “Fine. Then I shall follow Theo’s orders and stay here while trying to contact Isen.”  
“I cannot argue with you or with her. I can only do my best to keep you all safe.”  
“So why did you come here?”  
“I thought I could reason with you.” He looked up at her and Elsa thought she saw tears shimmering in his eyes but it may have been a trick of the gloom. “But I cant.”  
Silence returned again for a moment as the Guardian looked at his wayward charge and the Ice Queen looked at the man she could not entrust her protection to.   
“Leave.” Elsa finally commanded him. “Don’t come back. And tell the others to stay away too.”   
She turned away from him and returned to the ledger. She knew she should have offered him a chance to stay the night and leave in the morning rather than casting him out into the darkness and cold. But she really didn’t want him around. What if Anna met him?   
Garret retrieved his book from the couch but paused on his way out as if contemplating something.   
“You’re one of my girls now too, Elsa.” He whispered into the darkness. Elsa trembled as she heard the words, memories of her father threatening to overcome her. “I know our acquaintance has barely begun but I don’t want to see you suffer.” The Guardian paused, contemplating his next words. “Sometimes…we have to make personal sacrifices to fulfill our destiny.”  
Elsa turned to look at him. “I am not putting Anna or Arendelle in jeopardy.” She told him in a voice that left no room for argument.   
Garret’s gaze darkened considerably but the anger was gone from his face. “You may not have a choice.” His face looked as though uttering those words had physically hurt him. He turned away and crossed the room. At the door he paused, the borrowed book clutched in his hand.  
“Be ready by just before the winter solstice.” He told her without turning around. “By then we’ll hopefully have located Autumn and be ready to retrieve her. I’ll be back to collect you before we head out together.”  
Elsa nodded even though she knew he couldn’t see her. He seemed to understand anyway. As he crossed the threshold, he called out one last time to her over his shoulder.  
“And tell that little talking snowman of yours that next time he tries to hug me he should give me a warning. I don’t want to accidentally kick his head off again…”


	9. Premonitions

The months passed quickly. Too quickly.   
Elsa shut her eyes tighter and tried to lose herself in the now-familiar patterns of her meditations. But her mind refused to quiet this time.   
Even as her breath slowed and her heart quieted, her thoughts kept running fast. They darted through the developments of the past few months: Dagrun and his fellow street kids gave reports once a week to Anna and occasionally Elsa from what they had gathered across the kingdom. The Queen’s stimulus to businesses, although smaller than she’d hoped, seemed to be having the desired impact and Corona had provided excess grain to help stock the coffers for the coming winter. Firewood was being shipped in from the far north provinces by the Royal Ice Master and his brethren and being sold for half the normal price. There were still a few dissatisfied whispers but that was unavoidable. Generally people seemed happy and Prince Christian had not yet done anything to draw suspicion apart from writing to his brothers back home twice a week.   
Miraculously, the harvest was better than Elsa and the people of Arendelle had anticipated but still nowhere near enough to sustain them through the winter. Luckily, the trades were doing better. North Melonia had been convinced to grant Arendelle a loan in exchange for an indefinite ice trade and Corona’s generous gift had nearly made Elsa cry upon receiving it.  
Thanks to that, she’d successfully put off giving Christian an answer. They had spoken once or twice more when the prince politely inquired as to why the queen had not yet made a decision. Elsa had told him it was a delicate matter that she was pursuing in her own way and he was welcome to return home while she pondered it. But the prince had not left. Instead he hovered within the kingdom, taunting Elsa from afar with his polite patience and unwavering devotion to this matter. And Elsa knew eventually, she wouldn’t be able to hold off on answering him any longer. She was going to have to say yes.  
Elsa swallowed hard and pushed the thoughts of the Southern Isles’ prince away.   
For the moment, things were pleasant enough in the castle, between her fears of her kingdom crumbling relenting somewhat and planning for Anna and Kristoff’s wedding.   
But with everyday that brought the winter solstice closer, Elsa found it harder and harder to relax and focus.  
She was still unable to sleep through the night as the same nightmares plagued her sleeping hours. Her daylight hours were haunted by reminders of a certain person. She couldn’t decide which was worse: the evocative fears of her past or the crippling anxiety about her present.  
The queen let out a huff of frustration. Well, now she was really off track for ever sinking into unconsciousness. Elsa forced her thoughts away from the summer host and imagined a thick wall of ice keeping the disobedient thoughts at bay.  
True to her promises to both Theo and Garret, Elsa had been meditating as often as she could but every time, without fail she found the same frustrating result.   
Nothing.  
Elsa shifted slightly on the cold floor, straightening her back. She had taken to waking up before dawn most days (not that she was asleep then anyway) and crafting a make-shift ice palace in the same dungeon where she had once been held prisoner. The meditation only seemed to work if she was surrounded by the singing ice.   
But the result was always the same: singing, her flesh molding to the ice, the distinct impression that there was something deeper, if only she could will herself to fully join the ice…  
But she could not. To do so would be dangerous. Already going only that far often caused a thick ice cage to form tightly around her unconsciously as she sat there. And Theo wasn’t around to pull her back if she went too far again. If she went too far, she’d be gone. Trapped.  
Elsa had tried everything she could think of: screaming the spirit’s name in her mind, repeating the names of the other spirits under her breath like a mantra, singing beautiful songs, creating beautiful snow-scapes in her mind, begging even…  
Isen never said a word.  
She’d even had Olaf sit in the room once to see if that would somehow draw the spirit out but all it had succeeded in doing was make it impossible for her to sink into meditation with the snowman’s constant giggling and the pervasive sense of life she got from him even with her eyes open.  
Although the thought had crossed her mind several times, she would not let Anna sit in the room with her. Even though the thought of Anna’s arms around her was the only thing that helped her get rid of the cages she subconsciously developed in her meditation, she did not want her sister to see her like that. Ever.  
When she went too deep, when her ice became indistinguishable from the flesh on her body and the singing of it became her own voice, her creations spiraled out of control.   
Sometimes she returned to consciousness finding icicles along the edges of her cage gently pressing wickedly sharp tips to her skin, other times the entire room would be encased in four feet of thick ice, effectively trapping her inside the dungeon until she could focus enough to melt it. Once, she had awoken to find herself surrounded by small snowmen, all of them in varying states of being built, none of them complete.  
Elsa had cried for hours after that mediation, curled up among the snowmen, utterly helpless as wave after wave of sorrow crashed over her.   
But today, today she was going to do it. She had to.  
Mental wall against rouge thoughts in place, Elsa took a deep breath and let herself sink into the surrounding cold she was projecting. The cold enfolded her as always, sinking into her skin and cooling until it reached her internal temperature.   
Elsa exhaled slowly. Time to try her new approach.  
She thought about Anna, about the little girl who had first shown her the beauty in winter. The teenager who had reached out to her even though she knew she’d be rejected. The woman who still loved her unconditionally in spite of everything. The embrace that made the nightmares tolerable.   
The cold seemed to waver for a moment, as if startled that such thoughts were occurring in her mind.  
Elsa just kept them flowing, bringing to mind fond memories that the sisters had shared these past few months: the night they’d stayed up late just sipping hot chocolate and talking, the time they’d surprised Kristoff with a snowball attack, just a few days ago when they’d bickered fondly over who was the better skater (Elsa on the ice of course but Anna had years more practice on the polished floors of the east wing).  
The ice and the cold slowly responded to each memory, dancing around the void in her mind with each memory, as if trying to imprint each one on a snowflake and add it to a growing storm. The whirlwind began to swirl, gradually gaining momentum.   
In the small part of her that was still aware of herself, Elsa began to feel excited. This was new. Something different was happening this time. She’d never been able to control the storm before.  
Eagerly, she plunged into the icy void and gazed at the winds and ice around her. So beautiful, so powerful. So mysterious.   
Her flesh joined effortlessly with the cold, expanding and twisting to fill every gap and the ice responded by lifting its voice in song.   
Elsa opened herself up completely, her voice joining the chorus, letting her soul whirl on the winds and…  
Nothing.  
"Still?"  
Just herself in the ice, a dying breeze and the feeling like the storm within herself was holding its breath, waiting for something to happen…  
Resigning herself to yet another failure, Elsa slowly pulled herself back to reality, her skin crying as it was separated from the ice and forced back into shape.  
Upon opening her eyes, she was greeting with a terrifying sight: a pale, scared face reflected endlessly back at her in a million mirrors.   
She scrambled backwards but only succeeding in hitting another ice mirror, sending a wave of fear and shock all around the room as the mirrors copied her in perfect unison.   
They were everywhere, anywhere she looked, reflecting her movements. She could not escape herself.  
Unable to take the sight any longer, Elsa screamed and let loose an enormous torrent of snow that nearly filled the room. She was stuck up to her neck in fluffy snow, but at least she could no longer see the mirrors. With a wave of her hand, everything vanished: snow, mirrors, ice on the floor, everything.  
Elsa pulled herself to her feet, stumbling and barely managing to catch herself on the wall. She was shivering, drenched in cold sweat.   
"What the hell was that? Why did it scare me so much?"  
In the past, Elsa had had a problem with mirrors. Not that she didn’t like the way she looked, far from it. She’d inherited her mother’s beauty and her father’s royal grace and she was proud of that. Her apprehension was not about her looks. Rather, for several years, all her mirrors had been covered because of the way she looked. The fear and pain and sheer loneliness of her own gaze had made Elsa loathe every reflective surface she happened across. She’d begun to avoid them, even going so far as to remove the vanity from her room that had been a gift from her parents on her fifteenth birthday. Anything to avoid seeing the monster she had feared she was becoming. Even inside her ice palace, when the ice became reflective, she couldn’t bear to look at herself.   
It was only once the Thaw ended and she’d realized that Anna loved her no matter who she was that Elsa had begun peeking into mirrors again. It was, apparently, not going as smoothly as she had thought.  
A small whimper escaped her lips as she felt a sliver of pain shoot through her skull. Her entire body felt chilled, a feeling she could not ever remember even imagining.  
Was this how ordinary people felt in the cold? It was awful. At that moment, Elsa wanted nothing more than a warm fire to curl up in front of.  
Annoyed at that particular direction her thoughts had taken yet again, Elsa stalked around the dungeon, trying to decide if it was worth calming herself enough to try again or if she should just give up for another day.  
Elsa hated to admit it to herself, but not being around the fire-girl was making her more and more anxious by the day. The reminders of their moment had not stilled and seemed to grow more potent each time she brought them to mind until she could have sworn Theo was in the room with her, gazing deeply into her eyes again. The dreams were only getting worse. Every meditation seemed to end with her thoughts inevitably recalling a moment she didn’t know how she felt about.  
Elsa closed her eyes and drew a deep, calming breath pushing all thoughts of fire and sand from her mind. She might have been able to deal with it if her extensive research had led her anywhere except running in circles. There was no mention of a ‘temple’ anywhere near Arendelle’s properties, historical or otherwise. It was as if it simply didn’t exist. Her searches of the Arendelle birth records had not yielded a single “Theonia”, much less one the right age.  
She was beginning to suspect Theonia might be an assumed name.  
Shaking herself, Elsa crossed the dungeon, stripped off the now-soaking wet temple dress she had been wearing and conjuring herself a magnificent ice dress in preparation for the day’s events. Once she was presentable, she left the dungeon, slamming the door on the terrible memories contained inside.  
Outside, the sun was just cresting the horizon across the fjord, lighting up the soft, natural frost that had formed in the night. It was late October and autumn was beginning to slowly take hold over the land. Rubbing her arms and trying to warm herself up (what an insane thought…) Elsa stalked down the corridor and began to ascend the stairs back to the main castle.   
The failure weighed heavily on her. She’d thought that surely, today of all days…! But all she’d succeeding in doing was creating her most terrifying post-meditation scene and once again have her thoughts drawn back to Theonia.  
Elsa ran a hand over the wall as she ascended the main staircase, ice crackling along her palm but thankfully not spreading.   
She was running out of time. In every way.  
“Hiyyyhhhaaaa! Ha! Yeeeehh! Ha!”  
Elsa paused, confused at the sounds that were coming from her mother’s old parlor.   
“yea! Take that! Aaannnndd that!” Now she heard the distinctive sounds of metal biting into wood accompanying Anna’s angry voice.  
Noting the irony of the situation, Elsa knocked on the door.  
“Anna?” She called.   
The sounds stopped.   
“Go away Elsa.”  
The words stung Elsa more than she realized they could.  
“…Alright.” She said softly. But as she began to back away, her heart clenching painfully, snow gathering in the air around her, the door behind her suddenly flew open and a barrage of Anna hit her in the back. Elsa let out an unattractive ‘ooff’ as the assault forced all the air from her chest.  
Anna squeezed her tightly. “I’m sorry! Wait, Elsa! I’m sorry!”  
Elsa gave the blade hanging in front of her face a wary look. “Anna, please don’t ever hug me while you’re holding that thing again.”  
Anna backed away and apologized, sliding the short sword into her belt. Now that the hug was broken, she fiddled with her hands and looked away from her sister. She was dressed in breeches and a sweat-stained practice tunic. Heavy boots covered her feet. If her hair had been a bit shorter and her chest bound, Anna could have passed for a gentleman training for combat. But for all her smart attire, Anna merely resembled a child shyly playing dress-up in the hope that new clothes would give her courage she did not possess.   
The Queen looked at her little sister, startled but not at all surprised by her sister’s change in character.  
“What’s wrong?” She asked it even though she knew exactly what was wrong.  
Anna looked up at her, swallowing hard.   
Today was the day.   
Anna was getting married.   
Anna looked up at her big sister with desperation and an unspoken plea in her eyes, biting her lower lip between her teeth. Elsa ushered Anna back inside the parlor, deciding that whatever conversation they were about to have was probably best kept out of the hallways.   
Inside, among the desks piled high with papers (Informers reports most likely) and simple chairs, the remains of an antique chair (probably the one their great, great, great grandfather had died in or something) were scattered in thick chunks around the room. Elsa raised an eyebrow at it but said nothing. Clearly, Anna was even more nervous than she was letting on.   
These past few months had not been entirely easy for them. While normal things like talking and hugging had gradually become effortless, there were still far too many secrets hanging between them. Anna had accepted Elsa’s few private moments graciously but Elsa knew she was burying the hurt deep down, next to the lingering concern about her disappearance to the temple. Luckily, she’d had the wedding to distract her. Anna had also picked up sword play, a pursuit Elsa normally would have discouraged (not just because it was a manly activity you’ll understand, more because Anna had a tendency to break and impale things when she wasn’t holding a sharp weapon…) but now found herself practically pushing on her little sister.  
She didn’t want Anna to be defenseless should something happen to her or Kristoff.   
Surprisingly, Anna had taken to swordplay the same way she had to dancing: slowly but masterfully and with her own grace and charm that made her movements distinctly her own. In just a few short months she had bested most of the Arendelle guard and squires. The sword she was currently wielding had been a gift from her instructor, complimenting her incredible skill and Anna wore it everywhere proudly.  
“Do you want to talk about specifically what made you desire to attack a piece of furniture?” Elsa asked, deciding humor was probably a good way to start.   
Anna gave a painful smile. “I’m sorry but that chair had it coming.”  
Elsa smiled wryly. “Is this the one papa used to make you sit in whenever you crashed into a suit of armor?”  
Anna eyed the destroyed heap of wood and fabric with distain. “Yup. The very same.”  
“I’ve always hated that chair.” Elsa agreed, kicking the remains of a leg aside and wincing as the misshapen lump crashed on its side. “Glad you finally settled that score.” She turned back to Anna. “But why today?”  
“Isn’t it obvious?”  
Elsa said nothing, waiting for Anna to tell her what she already knew.  
Anna fidgeted. “I’m scared Elsa.”  
Before either of them could say anything or move, there was a knock upon the door.  
Kai’s voice floated through the wood. “Queen Elsa! Are you and the princess in there? The guests will be arriving shortly ma’m! The royal seamstress is waiting for Miss Anna in the room with her dress at your earliest convenience.”  
“Thank you Kai.” Elsa called. “The princess will be up shortly.” She waited until she could hear his footsteps retreat down the hall before she turned back to Anna. “Why are you scared?” She asked gently.  
Anna threw her hands up in the air. “What if I screw something up? You know me, I’m so clumsy, I’ll probably fall on my way down the aisle. Or I’ll tear my dress or...or I don’t know! I’ll do something no one has ever thought of to screw up a wedding…” She paused to draw breath and a whole new layer of fear cross her face. “and what if Kristoff doesn’t like today? I want it to be special for him too but I know how uncomfortable he is around palace life and other nobles…”  
“Anna…” The younger girl’s voice died abruptly in her throat as Elsa’s gentle, commanding voice sliced through the air. “This whole day has been planned. You don’t need to worry about anything except the things we discussed, alright? Leave the rest to me.”  
Swallowing thickly, Anna nodded. “You’re right. I’m sorry. I’m just being silly and worrying.” She crossed to the door. “I guess I’d better go change…” Her voice still sounded strained and scared. It tugged at Elsa’s heart.  
“Anna, wait.” She called. She heard her sister pause by the now-open door, turning back to face her. Elsa did not turn around. “You forgot something.”  
“I did?”  
Something cold and wet hit the back of Anna’s neck, jerking her head forward. Anna yelped and spun on the spot, grabbing at the spot. A thick handful of snow greeted her.  
“…a snowball? Really Elsa, you think that…” Then Anna screamed as an entire snowbank fell from the doorway onto her shoulders.  
“ELLLSAAAA!!!!”  
Elsa had started giggling softly, hiding her mouth behind her hand. She’d been practicing that attack from behind for weeks.  
“Forget the chair!” Anna declared, scooping snow off of her shoulder and taking aim. “My real revenge will be taken on you!” She let her snowball fly and it crashed into Elsa’s shoulders. Elsa spun with a grin worthy of a cat and waved her hands. Immediately, several dozen large globs of snow appeared in the air. Anna eyed each one with a wary sort of excitement.  
“Oh no…you wouldn’t. Not on my wedding day.”  
Elsa just raised an eyebrow.   
If anyone had been outside in the corridor, they would have thought Anna was being murdered. They would have assumed Queen Elsa had gone insane.  
Elsa cackled madly as she pummeled her sister with barrage after barrage of giant snowballs. Anna shrieked and laughed as she attempted to dodge and fend off the projectiles, somehow managing to find the open doorway and sprint out of it between icy blasts.   
“Freedom!”  
Elsa followed her, more snowballs springing to existence at her command. The two raced down the hallway, their laughter ringing from the corridor and drifting through the stones to the other floors.   
As they rounded a corner and hit the polished hardwood floors, Anna put on a sudden burst of speed, sprinting in preparation for a slide that would put her out of Elsa’s immediate range.   
Elsa charged after her, icing the floor to make up for the difference in physical stamina between them.   
Just as she caught up to her sister though, Anna slipped on the new ice underfoot and began to fall. Immediately, Elsa dropped and slid. Anna’s body crashed into hers and the two of them slid lazily down the icy hallway, both groaning in pain and chuckling with residual laughter.  
“…you…are…awful.” Anna said between gasps of air.  
Elsa was about to reply when they hit something and came to an abrupt halt. Two pairs of eyes widened as the suit of armor above them wobbled dangerously.  
“oh no…” Anna muttered.  
Shaken by the collision, soft as it had been, the suit quivered and its helmet slipped just enough to let gravity pull it down. Before it had fallen a foot however, it met an icy pillow and rolled to a stop.  
Anna let out a sigh of relief. “Thanks for that. Based on past experience, I don’t think that would have been pleasant.”  
“You also wouldn’t have had a chair to sit in.” Elsa joked as she deposited the helmet a safe distance away from them.  
Anna struggled to extract herself from her devilish sister but Elsa grabbed onto her and pulled her back down. “oh ha ha.” Anna deadpanned. “I haven’t sat in that chair for years!”  
The two of them chuckled as they lay wrapped up together on the floor, jitters and insecurities about the events of the day momentarily forgotten. Elsa tightened her grip on Anna’s waist and pressed a light kiss to her sister’s temple, her heart humming when Anna made an adorable, appreciative noise.  
“I just hope Kristoff likes everything.” Anna said, a little of her past worry returning.  
With a final squeeze, Elsa released her grip on her sister but immediately stretched out a hand and tangled it with Anna’s. “He’s going to love it Anna. Everything will be fine.”  
Anna offered her a smile. “Are you sure this is okay? I know we’re making everyone wait but…”  
Elsa held up her free hand. “I’ll handle it Anna, don’t worry.” She stood up, looking down at her sister with a mixture of sadness, reassurance and pride. “Are you ready?”  
Her eyes shining with hope, fear and a burning gratitude, Anna nodded and let Elsa help her to her feet.  
Elsa smiled and gave her sister a little push. “Then go.”  
***  
“Anna…you know I get nervous when you drive my sled.”  
“You need to relax Kristoff. Besides we’re almost there.”  
“Does that mean I can take this blindfold off now?”  
“Nope. You promised, not until I tell you.”  
Kristoff rolled his eyes even though he knew Anna would not be able to see. He heard Sven snort as he pulled them along. He could tell they were moving away from the castle, maybe headed north or east. It was hard to tell without vision. Anna could be driving them into the fjord (again) for all he knew.  
“Why are we taking a secret, private journey on our wedding day, just before the ceremony?” Kristoff asked for the third time. “Wont people talk? Worry about where we are? What will Elsa say?”  
“No matter how many times you ask Kristoff, I’m not going to tell you.” He grinned at the pout he could hear in her voice. “Now shush!”  
The sled hit a bump and he instinctively reached for where he thought Anna’s shoulders were to make sure she wasn’t unseated. He could practically feel her grin through his touch. With a smile of his own, he dropped his hands.  
The two had mutually agreed to wait for the wedding. There was no need to rush their love.   
So they’d played the months out as if Kristoff hadn’t accidentally proposed to Anna two and a half weeks after meeting her: going for sled rides and having long talks in the afternoons when he wasn’t working. Going on dates around the city. Anna introducing him to all her new and old friends (although the latter were mostly of the two-dimensional sort). Getting to know one another and trusting each other with everything. Kristoff had held her when she cried so effortlessly that he had begun to sob as well.  
As autumn waxed and began to fade however, Anna had confided in him that she felt there was no longer any point to taking it slow.   
She knew he was the one. And he was certain of the same.  
His heart had melted when she told him that whenever he left for extended ice trips, she missed him terribly. Not in a crippling sort of way, she explained but in such a way that brought to mind closed doors and lonely rooms. He knew just how deeply such things affected her.   
Kisses had slowly and gently paved the way to more intimacy until both of them found they were lost in each other completely. This wasn’t just passion or infatuation, Anna knew. And Kristoff had to agree. This was love. They could talk just as openly about the weather as they could their fears and worries. They craved each other but were not dependent on each other. They knew each other intimately inside and out. All those romance novels that had defined Anna’s ideas of true love had gotten it all wrong.  
This was so much better.  
The sled jerked to a halt suddenly, throwing Kristoff into the front, his abdomen smashing painfully into the front of the sled. Luckily, months around Anna had accustomed him to such physical discomforts.  
He chuckled as Anna hastily apologized and helped him straighten up.  
“We need to work on your braking there, feisty-pants.”  
She said nothing but instead gently jugged his arm, guiding him down and away from the sled and across a landscape he could not see.  
“Where are we?”  
She did not answer.  
Kristoff inhaled deeply, trying to figure out where they were. Something smelled familiar about this place, although he found he could not quite place it…  
Abruptly, Anna let go of his hand.  
“Anna?” He groped about blindly, trying to find her again. “Anna, this isn’t funny, where are you?”  
“Hurry up and take that thing off!”  
The new voice startled Kristoff. Not just because it was unexpected but rather because it was familiar.  
He ripped the blindfold off.  
“Bulda?”  
Her rocky eyes filled with unshed tears. “Oh, my boy!” She jumped up and into his arms, nearly dragging him down. His troll mother rained affectionate kisses all over his face, her tears splashing on his cheeks. When she finally let go of him, Kristoff got a good look at where Anna had taken him.  
His family stood before him, all of them silent and beaming. The trolls were gathered in the middle of the valley, right next to a freshly dug traditional wedding-grave.   
Immediately, Kristoff understood what was happening.  
“Surprise.” Anna said timidly from behind him. He whirled to face her. Anna offered him a shy grin from under her troll-wedding attire: stick crown and grassy cape. He recalled the last time he’d seen her wear it: the first time he’d ever known himself to truly be in love with her. These ones were much more elaborate, clearly the trolls had had more time to plan than the last time they’d tried to marry him and Anna. “Elsa helped me plan everything.” Anna continued. “Olaf came up here last week to talk to Bulda and Grand Pabbie. Do you like it?”  
He didn’t think an answer was necessary. Instead he just held out his hand for hers and led her towards the grave. As he walked by, the trolls adorned him for his wedding: his own stick crown and a regal, flowing cape of moss and the leaves of autumn. He stepped down into the hole and held his arms out for his bride. Anna let him take her by the hips and gently lower her next to him.   
The trolls eagerly began to gather around, some of the older ones crying unabashedly and the younger ones looking excited. Kristoff gazed around at his friends and family. Sven pawed the ground from his new position right behind the couple, his antlers decorated with glowing crystals and a smile in his large brown eyes.   
Grand Pabbie was not present but it didn’t bother Kristoff. He knew the old troll was probably just too tired to attend. But also, he still wasn’t sure he was ready to face him again after the revelations he’d discovered.  
Kristoff turned to Anna as the trolls began to chant wedding songs.   
“You two planned all this? For me?” He was still having trouble believing it. He’d been entirely convinced his wedding would be a royal affair, attended by nobles and lords with a banquet and ball and large ceremony. Not that he would have cared. He’d have happily married Anna in front of everyone who’d attended Elsa’s coronation wearing a dress if it had been required.  
Anna nodded in response to his question, blushing adorably.  
Kristoff gazed around the valley as inexplicable happiness swept through him. Not only could he share his wedding with his old family but his new one as well. “Well that is interesting,” He began casually, fighting to keep himself from succumbing to the emotion “because, I have a surprise for you as well. Back in Arendelle.” Krsitoff chuckled at Anna’s wide-eyed astonishment. “And a bit of a bone to pick with your crafty sister…” he muttered with a smile.  
***  
By the time the newly-weds made it back to Arendelle for their wedding, they knew guests had to be growing restless.  
“we’re soooo late!” Anna said with a stupid grin as Sven cantered into the open gates. The sun had passed noon and was beginning its long journey back to the horizon.   
“Good thing Elsa was covering for us.” Kristoff agreed, with a seemingly permanent goofy grin of his own.   
Anna giggled. “Yup. She’s good at that, particularly when some of the guests haven’t seen her powers up close.” She had never felt so happy. Now, even though their only witnesses had been trolls and a reindeer, they were married. Anna wanted so badly to kiss him right then and there.  
But they’d already taken up too much time.  
Hastily unhooking Sven, they hurried to the chapel, hearing a din of voices within.  
Kristoff turned to her, knowing he had to leave but reluctant to do so. He rubbed his thumb over the back of her hand. “Well…I guess this is it…” He made as if to turn away but Anna tugged him back.  
“Wait! What about the surprise?” She asked, her eyes shining.  
He only smiled. “You’ll see soon enough.” Kristoff squeezed her hand. “I’ll see you in there.” He placed a chaste kiss to her cheek, making Anna blush then grinned and ducked through the doors into the chapel.  
Anna raced into the side room, giving her clearly irritated royal seamstress a grin that was by no means apologetic.   
A few minutes later, amidst mutterings from the miffed old woman, Anna was clothed in her wedding dress. Incidentally, it was the same one her mother had worn. She’d demanded to wear it for this day. While being clothed in her mother’s memory, the princess had been glancing at the door every few seconds, eager for one particular person to walk through the door, bouncing on the balls of her feet, still grinning.   
As the minutes passed and Elsa did not appear, Anna’s mirth began to fade.  
“Do you know where my sister got to?” She asked Heline, the woman currently twisting her disobedient hair into place.   
“The Queen said she was busy.” Heline replied noncommittally through a mouthful of pins.  
Anna was about to demand to know exactly what the woman had meant by that but at that moment the door swung open.  
Anna whirled, Heline protesting vehemently as the barely-held-together hair was torn out of her grasp. But it was only Olaf and Gerda.   
“Wow Anna!” The snowman exclaimed, waddling up to her and staring with an open mouth. “You look beautiful!”  
Anna smiled at him nervously and bent down for a hug. She squeezed the cold snowman tightly, trying not to cry.  
“You really do look beautiful in that.” Anna released her hold on Olaf and looked up at Gerda. She stood and smoothed down the front of the dress.  
“Really?”  
Gerda beamed with pride. “it’s lucky you inherited so much of your mother’s figure.” Gently, she tucked a loose strand of hair behind the princess’s ear. Anna closed her eyes in content as the motherly gesture sent gratitude and comfort gushing through her.  
“Thank you Gerda.”  
“Everyone is getting restless.” The woman told Anna. “I think it’s about time, don’t you?”  
Heline made an incredulous sound and pulled Anna back towards her so that she could finish pinning her hair. Anna complied but only because it kept her from leaving the room. And it gave Elsa more time to show up, where was she?   
Two minutes later, her hair finally in place, Anna stood before the doors to the chapel with Olaf and Gerda. The woman had handed her a bouquet of snowdrops and lilacs that Anna fiddled with restlessly.   
The doors from the outside opened. Anna beamed but quickly felt it fade.  
“Kai…”  
“Are you ready Anna?” the old steward asked, his gentle eyes crinkling in happiness and pride. He moved to the Princess’s side and took her hand. “It’s time for me to give you away…”  
Anna shook her head. “Wasn’t Elsa going to walk me down the aisle?” She looked around but couldn’t see her sister anywhere. All her nerves about the wedding had faded because of her concern about where Elsa was.  
Kai and Gerda exchanged a look. “There was a change of plans.” The woman said.  
A sudden jolt of fear shot through her. “Where is she?” She demanded of Kai. A horrible thought crossed her mind: what if she ran away again? What if she was taken again?  
Kai tried to take her hand and tuck it under his arm but Anna yanked away from him.   
“I’m not doing this without her!” she said stubbornly.  
Kai only gently but firmly took her hand once more and tucked it under his elbow. “Trust me, Anna.” He said in such a way that she fell quiet.  
They faced the chapel doors, waiting to begin.  
The doors were cracked open just enough to let the snowman slip through. Olaf danced in, giggling and tossing flowers and snowflakes everywhere. The doors slid shut again behind him.  
“Ready?” Kai asked.  
Anna took a deep steadying breath, trying to get her apprehensions under control. “I was born ready.”  
He patted her hand. “That’s my girl.” Gerda gave Anna a small, affectionate tap on her rear and Anna threw a final smile over her shoulder.   
Slowly, the doors to the chapel creaked opened completely, revealing the crowded interior, the bright stained-glass murals on the windows, letting a whiff of music wash over the pair. As she was revealed, Anna saw every eye in the room turn to look at her. But she only had eyes for two.  
Kristoff smiled at her from the altar, love and happiness swimming in his eyes as he prepared to wed her for the second time.  
Standing next to Kristoff on the altar, holding the prayer book was…  
Anna felt the name escape her lips on a gasp. “…Elsa…”  
***  
It had been Kristoff’s idea, naturally. He knew there was only one way to make their wedding impossibly special to his new wife and that was for her sister to be part of it.  
Elsa had turned down his offer at first, knowing that she’d already be on edge at the thought of Anna getting married, never mind to who. But his gentle persuasion and careful, elaborate plan had eventually encouraged her to agree.   
Now, seeing the look on Anna’s face as Kai led her to the altar, Elsa couldn’t understand how she’d ever doubted that this would be a good plan.   
Anna looked positively radiant, beautiful and beaming with the knowledge that her sister was about to wed her and Kristoff. Elsa smiled, knowing that despite Anna’s happiness, the queen still would not be escaping the inevitable scolding that would follow the ceremony for not walking Anna down the aisle like she had promised.  
The corner of Elsa’s mouth twitched. Well, she’d just have to make it up to her sister then.  
Anna gasped as she suddenly realized ice was creeping along her dress, transforming it from their mother’s old wedding gown to a magnificent blend of cloth and ice. She sparkled as she ascended the stairs and Anna noted with pride that not only was Kristoff’s mouth hanging open in awe, so were all the men’s in the front row. And even a few ladies.  
The only person not surprised by her beauty was of course Elsa herself. She had always considered Anna beautiful. Her gaze was one of pride.   
“People of Arendelle, honored guests,” Elsa began, her quiet, powerful voice echoing from the rafters as a tearful Kai presented Anna to her husband. “we are gathered here today to witness and bless the marriage of Anna, Princess of Arendelle to Kristoff Bjorgman, Lord of the Northern Provinces.”  
Anna grinned up at Kristoff as Elsa began the ceremony, a silent promise in her smile that she would give him hell for this surprise when all this was over. He just smirked right back and took her hand.  
Elsa read a few prayers then had them exchange vows.   
Anna promised to always stand by Kristoff and care for him with all her heart. Kristoff promised to do the same.  
They turned to Elsa as they completed their vows. Anna saw her sister’s lip tremble ever so slightly. She reached towards her but a tiny shake of the head from Elsa made her stop.  
The queen raised one hand and closed her eyes.   
Ice began to creep around the wrists of the hands they were holding, forming two identical bangles of glowing, unmelting ice.  
“By these special rings on your wrists,” Elsa proclaimed, opening her eyes again but keeping them focused only on her work “I join your lives together.”  
The ends of the bangles grew outwards and twisted until they joined together, forming a thin but sturdy bridge between the two bracelets such that the entire ensemble resembled the symbol for infinity.   
“Just as they come together in an endless cycle, may your love and devotion to each other know no end.”  
Kristoff and Anna admired the adornments with open mouths. Sure they had been planning to exchange rings but this…  
As one, they both looked up at Elsa. Her mouth turned up in a mischievous smirk that only they could see.  
The queen turned to the assembly, presenting the lovers before them as bound by the ice. “By the power vested in me as the 15th Queen of Arendelle, I hereby pronounce you husband and wife.”  
A tear rolled down Anna’s cheek as her sister said those words.   
Elsa caught her gaze and smiled expectantly.  
Anna was so caught up with emotion that she couldn’t hold it back any longer.  
This moment was just too perfect: Kristoff’s hand in hers, Elsa giving her away but still promising to always be there, beside her for all of time.  
It was too much.  
To everyone’s surprised (except perhaps Kristoff), Anna dropped Kristoff’s hand and threw herself at her sister, wrapping her arms around her neck and pressing their cheeks together. Kristoff stumbled along due to the interlocking ice bangles but chuckled the whole way. The back of his left hand ended up touching the back of Elsa’s head.  
Anna kissed her surprised sister’s cheek softly. Then her lips found Elsa’s ear and in the privacy of their proximity, whispered a thick, teary: “Thank you.”   
Only then did she pull away and finally kiss her new husband.  
The crowd below them all stood and applauded.   
“Love live Princess Anna and Prince Kristoff!” Someone yelled. And soon, the entire chapel was ringing with the mantra.  
Elsa barely heard it through the happy tears streaming down her face.  
***  
After the ceremony, thanks to the tact and foresight of her amazing sister, Anna and Kristoff found themselves with a moment of complete solitude to enjoy the outcome of the day thus far.  
“Can you believe it!” Anna asked him for the tenth time. “Married! Actually married! Twice!” She collapsed onto a couch in the private room Elsa had secreted them away to, laying on her back and kicking her legs up in the air like an excitable four-year-old on their birthday.  
Watching her, Kristoff was unable to wipe the goofy smile from his face.  
“what really amazes me is that Olaf was able to keep secrets from both of us at once.” He commented, leaning over the arm of the couch so that his face hovered over hers.   
Anna nodded. “And that Elsa willingly and knowingly secretly plotted this day with both of us.”  
He smirked down at her. “Oh that I have no trouble believing…”  
Her head tilted to one side. “Wait, what?”  
He almost laughed at the naïve incredulity in her expression “Your sister,” he began, his grin widening “is quite the devilish and diabolical planner.” He’d have to remember to thank her later.  
Anna’s confusion faded into contentment “Yes, but that planner gave you the best day ever!” A thought suddenly seemed to occur to her and she sat up, looking at him in concern. “Didn’t she…?”  
Kristoff let her squirm in her uncertainty for all of two seconds before he gave up trying to hide it.  
In one, smooth motion, he swept her up in a tight embrace, lifting her off the couch and spinning her around effortlessly. Anna squealed in delight. “Today…has been one of the greatest days of my life.”  
Anna laughed as he finally put her down. “What about the day we met?” She asked.  
Kristoff adopted a very solemn face before he answered. “Well, that was the worst day of my life…”  
“hey!” Anna crossed her arms, her bottom lip pulling out in an adorable pout.  
Kristoff however, was not done teasing his wife “I got thrown out of a shop! Actually thrown! Then I was bitten by wolves, dragged across the snow (in the summer I may add) and nearly plummeted to my death off a cliff. To top it off, I lost all my worldly possessions. Sorry if that doesn’t crack my top ten…”  
He gave her a sidelong glance. The pout had slipped slightly and her lower lip was beginning to tremble. “yes Anna, it was a terrible day.” Kristoff said in the same solemn tone.  
He scooped her up again and spun her around several times until the sadness melted off her face. “But I wouldn’t have changed it for anything.”  
Anna giggled as he finally put her down. “Neither would I.”  
They joined hands again and the ice around their wrists immediately grew to bind together again.  
“What the…?”  
Startled, Anna pulled her hand free and the binding immediately melted back into two separate bangles.   
Anna gently ran a finger over her bangle. “what was that?”  
“Is that supposed to happen?” Kristoff asked, examining his own bangle which was looking innocent and completely incapable of expanding on its own.  
Slowly, Anna nodded. “I think so…”  
Softly they joined hands again. The ice bound them together.  
“Elsa did say these were special.” Anna admitted after a moment of stunned silence.  
Kristoff nodded in agreement. “Clearly…”  
Anna dropped his hand and the excess ice faded once more. “She made them special for us…”  
Her lower lip was trembling again but Kristoff saw the undeniable happiness in her eyes this time.   
“Oh!” Kristoff chuckled as Anna’s face snapped from sadness to joy so fast it would have made a normal person seem unstable. Even though he was used to it, Anna’s random outbursts whenever a new idea occurred to her still made him laugh. “You’ll still work in the ice fields, right?” Anna asked. “I don’t want you to give up your life just because we got married!”  
“Of course I’ll be working!” Kristoff replied “What else would I do, be your trophy husband?” He flinched in mock hurt as she punched him on the arm. “I’m not sure I’ll like being called ‘your majesty’ by the others all the time now though…” He remarked, rubbing his arm.  
“They already call you ‘your lordship’ and ‘master’.” Anna pointed out.  
“yes and it took me two months to make them stop. Imagine how long it will take me to get them to stop bowing! Stop that!” He told her as Anna gave him an overdramatic, sweeping bow.  
When Anna straightened up, she wrapped her arms around his neck and stood on her tiptoes.  
“Don’t worry about that.” She kissed him long and hard, the bangles around their wrists shining and glinting as their arms found ways around each other. “We have the rest of our lives for that.” Anna told him as they separated.   
Kristoff had never found such a cliché line more beautiful.  
***  
The royal sisters and the Ice Deliverer had mutually agreed that a small ceremony and reception would be best given the state of the economy and Kristoff’s general illiteracy and discomfort with all things related to courts and balls.   
Thus, the guest list had been very short, really a bare minimum if they were quite honest with themselves. The food was sparse but delicious (Anna would hardly consider her marriage fun without chocolate and ice cream on the menu). The band was a local group Anna had found and charmed in her usual way, far from the royal affair that had set the tone for Elsa’s coronation ball. The decorations almost entirely consisted of the frozen kind as per Anna’s request.   
It was simple, cheap and beautiful. Charming where it lacked elegance and stunning where it lacked formality.   
Despite the overwhelming relief and happiness in her heart at the wedding, Elsa still found she could not enjoy the reception. The reason for this however, was painfully apparent.  
“Don’t you agree your majesty?”  
Elsa only gave a curt nod to the men before her, hoping it would be enough to hide the fact that she hadn’t really been listening. Apparently that satisfied the lord who was speaking, a certain Lord Hugo of the kingdom of Barlona and he went back to rambling about gods knew what with various accentuating gestures. Prince Ingolf of Scily nodded in agreement and the young Duke of Hadsvon thoughtfully furrowed his brow and sipped his wine.  
Elsa sighed and downed her glass of water, refusing to drink at a party that in any way involved men wanting access to the royal chambers. Not that she didn’t trust herself while tipsy, she just wanted a clear head for any possible negotiations that may come up, carnal or otherwise. Elsa stifled a sigh as her companions continued to talk and argue with each other like strutting peacocks, occasionally sending confident glances her way that she acknowledged with a tilt of her head. She should have guessed that this ceremony would quickly become yet another misguided attempt at her hand by every suitor within a thousand mile radius…even a short guest list could not save her from this hell.   
Elsa had been courted before of course. Her parents may have shut the gates but that didn’t mean she was safe from everything outside them. Since her thirteenth birthday, various suitors had come before her, hoping to win her favor and establish a marriage contract between nations. Thankfully, Elsa’s parents had been adamant that no marriage plans be laid until Elsa turned eighteen. That year, she’d met more suitors than she cared to count and managed to politely decline every man brought before her. Elsa’s grip tightened on the glass in her hand. And then her parents had died. Courtship had ceased in the years since and Elsa had not devoted any thought to the matter, especially not after what had been happening these past few months.  
Especially since she’d starting having her thoughts plagued by someone who was definitely not a man.  
A mention of the wedding thankfully brought Elsa out of her thoughts.  
“I must say, a queen leading a ceremony is a nice change of pace from stuffy old bishops…” This statement was directed at her by the charming, if a bit gruff Prince Ingolf. He beamed at her in a way that was clearly supposed to be charming and seductive. Elsa found it rather rude.  
“I shall not be doing such a thing again if that’s what you’re implying.” Elsa replied with the tiniest hints of a smirk when the men seemed surprised she was actually joining the conversation. “Today was for my sister. I don’t plan on granting anyone else the same benefit.”  
The Duke of Hadsvon spoke up then, breaking his silence for the first time in minutes. “Perhaps we can expect another marriage in Arendelle soon.” He said conversationally. He paused to take a swig from his glass then wipe his lips with a handkerchief he whipped from his pocket. “One that makes it impossible for you to officiate.” It was impossible to miss what he had been implying, even the dense as rocks Lord Hugo stiffened in response to his remark.  
Elsa fought to keep the ice from her voice and the surrounding air. “My sister is getting married. I have no intention of immediately following suit.” She said in a clipped, polite voice.  
“Queen Elsa,” the duke replied, now sounding mildly chastising because he had succeeded in capturing her interest “surely even you realize how odd this is? The heir marrying first? To a commoner?”  
The distain filling that last part of that sentence made her want to freeze his gloves off of his hands. “I see nothing wrong with love.” Elsa replied coolly. “I see nothing wrong with waiting for it.”  
“Oh yes, by all means, marry for love.” Lord Hugo cut in, waving his hand and nearly knocking over the poor serving boy who had come to collect their empty glasses. “Just don’t be turned off to the possibility of that love surfacing after marriage! Rather, marry someone you could see yourself learning to love.” She didn’t like the way he was looking at her as he said that.  
Elsa could feel yet another uncomfortable argument beginning, only this one involving herself as a spokesperson for her sex. But luck was on her side tonight. At that precise moment, the serving boy stumbled or perhaps the duke had simply put his foot down in the wrong place. Nothing fell off the tray thankfully, but several glasses did topple over, their contents sloshing over the edge of the platter and splashing to the floor dangerously close to the noblemen’s feet.   
As the men around her stumbled backwards to avoid stains and soiled socks, Elsa took the opportunity to end discussion on their topic of conversation. “I thank you very much for your advice gentlemen.” Elsa said coolly as if they were discussing finances. “I will keep it in mind when the time comes for it to prove useful.” She delicately placed her empty glass on the serving-boy’s tray, somehow managing to hide her surprise when she realized it was Dagrun holding the platter. So luck had a name…  
“Now if you’ll excuse me…” She swept away, not even bothering to offer an explanation for her departure or acknowledge their hurried respectful bows. She was a queen in her own kingdom, for all they knew she had business to attend to or a servant to fire.  
She really didn’t care what they thought.   
Elsa circled the room once, avoiding conversations and offers to dance with distant, polite nods before managing to cross paths with the spy again.   
“A fine party tonight.” She commented casually to him as she took a fresh glass of water from his tray. Her gaze however, clearly said "what are you doing here?"  
Dagrun gave her a devilish smile and a wink. “See what I told ‘ya Elsa?” He whispered to her. One finger briefly brushed his lapel and she caught sight of a glinting snowflake hidden under it. “Invisible.” He watched her swallow half the glass in one go and place the beverage back on the tray. “Princess Anna informed me that your Highness may be in need of some assistance.” He said, sounding no different from any other serving boy addressing his queen. “So I volunteered.”  
Elsa glanced up and caught sight of her sister’s grin as she danced with Kristoff in the middle of the ballroom. Her first genuine smile of the night tugged at her lips. “Well do please inform the Princess her concern is much appreciated. And impeccably timed.” She winked at the boy then gave a slight jerk of her head, indicating that he should go.  
Dagrun gave her an adorable grin then melted back into the crowd, handling the tray like he had years of experience. Elsa caught Anna’s eye once more and they shared a smile across the room.  
"Still always looking out for you… "  
As Elsa began to circle the room again, yet another new face rushed up to greet her.   
“Queen Elsa.” The slightly rounded man huffed, bowing deeply and trying to catch his breath. Elsa nodded to him, recalling his name from the guest list.   
“Lord Wilfred of North Melonia.” She acknowledged him, holding out her hand for him to take. “A pleasure that you could make it. I trust our trade agreement was satisfactory?”  
His sweaty hand gripped her hand firmly. “Oh yes, your majesty!” The few wispy hairs on his head drifted lazily up and down as he nodded enthusiastically. “More than satisfactory! Superb! It is amazing just how long your ice lasted even after its arrival.”  
Elsa smiled and dropped his hand. “I am glad. I do hope our partnership may continue into the future.”   
“Of course, of course.” He waved a hand carelessly. His eyes lit up. “But I did not come all this way tonight to discuss trade agreements, no. Far too much of that talk recently. There is someone very important here I would like you to meet…” He turned and beckoned to someone who was apparently waiting for his signal.  
A young man left the crowd around the refreshment table and made his way over to the pair. When he reached them, he completely ignored Lord Wilfred and smiled pleasantly at Elsa.  
Elsa inclined her head and forced herself to remain politely interested. Where were all these suitors popping up from? Surely she’d met them all already?  
“Prince Leif,” The young man said by way of introduction. “3rd Prince of North Melonia” Elsa extended her hand and he bowed to kiss it.  
He had rather short black hair, chopped to almost exactly the same length as…  
Stop.  
“The third prince?” Elsa inquired as he straightened up. “I was not aware Melonia had such a large royal family.”  
A gentle smile tinged his opaque blue eyes. He couldn’t have been older than 24 but he carried himself both with the dignity of an old man and the easy confidence of a bachelor. “Well, we’re no Southern Isles,” He joked lightly, completely missing Elsa’s twitch of discomfort. “but we have our fair amount of princes and princesses.” He chuckled, clearly already at ease in her presence. “My youngest brother is convinced he’s going to be king, never mind the four elders standing in his way.”  
“Ambitious though.” Elsa commented, trying to keep spite from her tone. “You’ll want to watch out for that. It can get ugly.” She placed one hand on her stomach as a sudden wave of nausea passed through her. It swiftly faded.  
“Oh he’s only five.” The prince said with a good-natured chuckle, not noticing Elsa’s momentary discomfort. “He’ll grow out of it. His ambitions change day by day. He only threatens to be king on Tuesdays.”  
Elsa suddenly noticed that Lord Wilfred had melted back into the crowd while they had been talking. The sneaky little… another wave of vertigo, this one stronger than the last, washed through her and she fought to keep herself from swooning. What was happening to her?   
“The weather here is much warmer than I expected it to be…” The prince commented casually, looking out of the window nearest to them. “I was told usually by this time of year snow has begun to fall. I was looking forward to it.”  
Elsa found herself staring. Was he actually, casually, comfortably discussing the weather with her? And of all weather, winter weather? All the others had been crafty enough to limit their comments to the decorations at most. “We’ve been lucky so far,” Elsa replied, her hand now resting casually across her middle as if it could lessen the resurfacing discomfort. “they are still collecting the harvest.”  
“I cant imagine a better lucky charm than you for holding back the winter.” Prince Leif said with a wink.  
Elsa shrugged. “Well I do my best.”   
He chuckled, the corners of his eyes and mouth crinkling pleasantly. Elsa was somewhat shocked. What was she doing? Was she actually flirting with him?  
The strange, woozy feeling in her stomach had not lessened. Her head felt like a small headache was coming on. A cold feeling had lodged itself in her lower abdomen. Her fingers were beginning to tingle.  
Prince Leif was still not noticing her distress. That, or he was very politely ignoring it. He leaned closer, his breath tickling her ear. “I must say Queen Elsa, you are not at all what the others make you out to be.” He whispered to her.  
Elsa found she could no longer listen to him. She saw barely even aware of him. There was a strange ringing in her ears. She felt like she needed something to hold on to, like a huge dizzy spell was about to overcome her.  
She took a sudden step away from him, blinking rapidly as her vision swam. A sharp pain shot through her middle and she fought the urge to double over.   
“Queen Elsa? Are you alright?” Her companion sounded startled. So he had finally realized something was wrong.  
She wanted to answer him but her voice was dead in her throat. Stumbling, Elsa’s hands hit the window, keeping her from sliding to the ground. She took a few deep breaths, trying to calm herself. But her heart wasn’t racing. This wasn’t some kind of panic attack. What was going on?  
A cracking sound made her head shoot up and she ripped her hands away from the window as spider-web cracks began to crawl across it from her power.  
Her hands had gone ice cold, a tingling sensation rushing to all her extremities and dancing out across her limbs. Her breath felt like it was freezing in her lungs.   
A glance at her hands confirmed her fears. The ice was leaking out, coating the backs of her hands in delicate snowflakes…snow had begun to fall from the ceiling.  
Something was wrong…she couldn’t make it stop.  
“Excuse me please…” She barreled past the confused prince without another word, darted through the crowd as quickly as humanly possible without actually running, heading for the door. A swirling flurry of snowflakes accompanied her. To the slightly inebriated guests, the display appeared to be more of a show than an escape and their attention was drawn to the fresh, glowing snow falling from the ceiling and piling up in the punch bowl and along the curtains.  
But three pairs of eyes followed Elsa’s escape: two with growing concern and one with barely concealed excitement.  
***  
Elsa somehow managed to make it to the second story courtyard before her legs gave out. Why she went there, she had no idea. She had just walked and her feet had led her here. She fell to her knees, hardly feeling the air on her skin. Her entire center was churning and writhing as if some kind of demon inside of her was struggling to get out. Every single bit of her, even her heart felt cold. Every breath that left her body was as icy as a winter’s gale.   
Elsa clutched at her chest, trying desperately to breathe normally. Several icicles sprung up around her. Snow was swirling thickly. She still couldn’t make it stop.  
What is going on? Is it Isen? Is she finally awake?  
Somehow, Elsa didn’t think so. This felt foreign, different from when her powers had spiraled out of control to cause the Great Freeze. It almost felt as if something else were controlling her body and her powers from far away, forcing them to react. But what could it be?  
Deep inside, Elsa felt a great shudder.  
Her eyes snapped open in realization.  
"I’ve felt this before…"  
A long time ago, when she was still just a child…the ice had escaped, overpowering her even through the gloves, driving her away from human touch lest she lose control like that again…  
I felt something within me shudder. I dropped my book and clenched my hands tightly inside my gloves, hastily pulling them into my chest as the cold came.  
“Conceal…don’t feel. Conceal, don’t feel..conceal…” The mantra was never comforting but it worked. Most of the time.  
A sudden pain ripped through me, making me cry out. It had never hurt before. My ice never hurt me…  
I stumbled out of my chair and ran blindly, slamming shoulder-first into the wall. Crying out, I turned, slamming my back into it instead.   
“Stop…please…stop…”  
The cold swirled strongly within me, threatening to burst free of my fragile frame and engulf the entire castle…the power was so much larger than this tiny vessel…  
There was a pounding on my door. My eyes flew open.  
“Elsa! Elsa, we’re coming in!”  
I tried to yell to my father, to tell him to stay away. But a great tremor overtook me, snapping my tiny body against the wall and my vision went white. Far away…there was a powerful voice…like a raging fire…roaring in my mind triumphantly…  
…It is time…the cycle begins again…  
By the time my vision returned, my parents had made it into my room. My mother opened her arms to me, a question in her eyes but I couldn’t run to her. What if I hurt her? I cowered against the wall, shivering. Slowly, her eyes widened and her arms fell.  
Now I saw what I had done.   
My parents only watched in concern as I slowly unfolded myself and stepped away from the corner, clenching my fists painfully.   
I was trembling, my gloves were soaked and clinging feebly to my hands, utterly ruined.   
“I’m scared!” I told them, my voice shaking. “It’s getting stronger!”  
While I’d lost consciousness, the ice had burst from me in a great wave, climbing up the walls, almost leaking out the door. I couldn’t stop it, nothing had worked…it was stronger than me…  
The memory stopped there. Elsa trembled as the pain inside her doubled and bit her lip to keep from crying out.  
"Why is it returning now?"  
A warm hand was at her back. “Elsa? Elsa what’s wrong?”  
Instinctively, or perhaps fearfully, Elsa jerked away from the contact.   
“Stay away!” She shouted, fighting the discomfort enough to try to drag herself away from the other person. If she lost control and hurt someone…  
Strawberry-blonde hair entered her vision, followed quickly by fearless, warm arms around her. Fear as she had not known in months surged through her.  
“Anna no!” She struggled fiercely but her sister’s iron grip quickly killed her resolve.  
“I’m not letting you go Elsa. What’s going on? What’s wrong?”  
Elsa swallowed hard and bit back a whimper as a deep pulsating pain took root both in her head and her heart. “I…I can’t hold it back Anna!” Tears poured down her face. “I’m going to hurt you!” She tried to turn her head, tried to look at her sister, to silently plead with her to let her go.  
Anna did not move.  
Helpless, Elsa could do nothing but tremble and attempt to breathe as the pain inside her pulsated and grew. When it reached a level of excruciation such as she had never known existed, all at once, like a wave breaking, the power overwhelmed Elsa. A great cry escaped her lips as her body snapped back, pain flowing out of every pore, the cold exploding from her in all directions.  
Her vision went white. She lost all sense of place, of feeling, of being. It was nothing but the blankness around her and the cold. It was so cold.   
There was a voice hiding deep within the wave, something far away screaming in pain and fear and the wretched sting of loneliness…it cracked across her consciousness like a bolt of lightning…  
"…Why, Mother? WHY? Why have you forsaken me to this fate…?"  
Elsa felt its sorrow, she shared its pain, the utter misery of its loneliness. She let out a great cry of longing, wishing only to reach out to the voice…to help the misguided soul of her sister…  
Hearing the heart-wrenching cry, Anna held Elsa even tighter, ignoring the way her dress became coated in a thick layer of ice and the shudder her heart gave as it remembered the dire consequences of the last time Elsa had let loose an ice burst like this.  
Fortunately, this one did not freeze her heart.   
“Oh Elsa…” Anna muttered as her sister whimpered and trembled in her grip. “What happened to you when they took you away?  
Unbeknownst to Anna, Elsa had no idea of what had just happened. She was currently wrapped up in yet another painful memory of her powers spiraling out of her control…  
It was my own sorrow that set it free. This burst was far larger than the one I’d created involuntarily as a child. I’d been sitting in it for days, ever since the sorrow took hold of me. It had come upon me suddenly, like a storm, like a great wave. I hadn’t fought it. It was too strong and the sadness accompanying it was too crippling for me to do anything but struggle not to break down completely.  
I knew even before Kai came to deliver the news.   
Our parents were gone. The ocean had claimed them. In one moment, one single breath of the great waters, their ship had vanished. Gone to sleep beneath the waves.  
As odd as it sounded, I knew I’d felt the moment the ocean took our parents. Something inside of me had shivered and I had jolted awake with tears streaming down my face. Then the cold sorrow had come. I hadn’t been able to sleep or even move for days after that. Not until the day when news finally reached us that our parents were dead.  
I heard her sit against my door, softly, tearfully begging me to come out. To be there for her now, when there was no one else.  
“…we only have each other…it’s just you and me…what are we gonna do?”  
I knew I had to be alone. I had to keep Anna as far away from me as possible. While I might burst like this at any moment, Anna had to be protected. The door had to remain closed.  
A quiet sniffle that nearly broke me completely. Then, the words that finally did.  
“Do you wanna build a snowman?”  
So much. Always.   
And now…the sorrow was too much.  
I buried my face in my knees to muffle my cries.   
In the air around me, the snowflakes held perfectly still.   
Anna sat outside my door. Waiting.  
I couldn’t be there for her…I couldn’t do anything.  
Anna was gently stroking her hair, bring her back from her relapse into the crippling sorrow of the past. “I thought you were okay…what happened?”  
“I was fine. This was…it was…” Elsa struggled to find words as she lay limply in her sister’s arms. “Something else, something other than me forced me to lose control for a moment.”  
There were shouts and laughter from the courtyard below. Anna and herself had organized a commoners’ party inside the castle gates to celebrate the marriage, complete with ice rink and decorations. Elsa had thought it a great idea at the time. Now, she was regretting that decision.  
“Is…is anyone…?”  
Anna shushed her gently. “I think it all stayed in this courtyard Elsa.” She replied. “They may have gotten some flurries down below but not much else.”  
Somehow, the statement brought the queen little relief. She could see the ice dripping from her sister’s clothes (their mother’s dress…), the violent splatters of snowy streaks on the courtyard statues and walls, the icicles poking out of great snow heaps surrounding them, the few icy mirrors that reflected their kneeling forms.  
Elsa recoiled at that last sight. “How can I lead these people?” She whimpered in a quiet voice. “I’m dangerous.”  
After so many months of perfect control, she was still a loose cannon who could be rendered dangerous at any moment, even without emotional triggers. Her thoughts were consumed with meditations and elusive ice spirits instead of political alliances and economic advancement. Her heart was stubbornly focused on a fiery woman rather than any of the suitors practically throwing themselves at her.  
“I’ll bring ruin on this kingdom one way or another…”  
Anna’s arms squeezed her tightly but made no response.  
Suddenly, her sister’s embrace fell away from her. But before she could even whimper in protest, strong arms lifted her up.  
“Hold on there Elsa.” Kristoff’s gentle voice rumbled against her cheek. “We’ve got you.”  
Exhausted, Elsa could do little else but go limp in his arms and let him carry her inside.  
***  
It was late. But Prince Christian was in the stables.   
He paced silently among the scurrying stable lads and neighing horses. The hand gripping the pommel of his sword was white-knuckled.   
Everything was falling into place. The whispers had done their work thus far. So why did he feel so uneasy?  
He scratched at the scruffy beard he’d acquired in the months he’d spent here. All night he’d been trying to reach her but Queen Elsa had suddenly vanished from the party several hours ago, Princess Anna and her new husband graciously and vaguely explaining that the young queen had retired for the evening, ill from her duties and planning the ceremony.   
The princess and new prince had vanished shortly after that, undoubtedly to consummate their appalling disregard for class and status.  
But he cared little about that. Elsa was the one he cared about. The woman with the powers of winter.  
The woman who could help him.  
“Your majesty.” The cold voice made him abruptly stop pacing, his feet snapping together. He turned to face his new companion.  
“My dear Lord Wilfred. So good to see you.” The prince’s voice was far calmer than his conscious. He clasped the man’s shoulder and pulled him over towards the far end of the stable, away from the ears of the stable boys. “Glad our history has not prevented us from forming this little partnership.”  
The older man shrugged out of his grip and regarded him uneasily. “I came. That was all I agreed to. Now what do you want from me?”  
Prince Christian kept a desperate hold on his cordiality, it would not benefit him to lose his manners so early in the discussion. “You know what I want. Why would you hesitate to agree when your part is so simple?” He spoke in a quiet voice, so as not to alert the stable boys around them to what they were discussing.  
“My first priority is and always will be the prince’s safety.” The lord replied in a fiercely loyal voice. He mopped his sweating bald spot with a handkerchief. “That is my duty. I cannot risk his safety for a mere fantasy you are pursuing.”  
Christian fixed him with a piercing but not unkind gaze. “You were the one who convinced me this was not a fantasy.” He reminded him.  
The scholar shrugged. “Not on purpose. All the same, I will not drag Prince Leif into this. He has a good chance with the queen and a family name that cannot take any more tarnishing after his oldest brother’s…decisions.” He was referring of course, to the tendency of the crown prince of North Melonia to meet other young men in the stables after dark.  
“I do not care what your charge or his siblings do,” Prince Christian said, not entirely honestly. “my concern is the one he pursues. The one who ignores me.” He’d been here for months, whiling away his time writing letters, researching and plotting. And still he was no closer to the icy Queen Elsa.  
“I have no information on Queen Elsa.” Lord Wilfred said, sounding exasperated. The few hairs on his head were sticking up slightly from his continued sweating and mopping. “I have told you as much the last time we spoke. As for her powers, I have found myths of others but that’s all they are. Myths. Young girls pop up every few decades then vanish, all of them before they turn ten. Several have had and I quote: ‘a distinct chill surrounding their actions and movements…’” He scoffed. “hardly definitive.”  
“But what of Arendelle itself?” Prince Christian asked, lowering his voice even further as a stable boy hurried past, holding tackle. “You do have information on that.”  
“I told you everything I know.” Lord Wilfred said, like a teacher explaining why the earth was not flat, “It is up to you to interpret what you will from it.”  
An anxious hand tickled the hilt of his sword. “If your information is to be trusted, Arendelle is far richer than we are being led to believe.” This was the hope he was desperately clinging to. The one thing he needed from this tiny excuse for a kingdom.  
If Lord Wilfred noticed the desperateness in his voice, he gave no inclination of it. “If the scriptures of the sages of old are to be trusted, this very well could be the land they speak of.”  
The prince drew a deep breath. “You found a new passage. Quote it to me.” He commanded.  
Glancing around to be sure they wouldn’t be heard, Lord Wilfred softly began to recite the ancient words. Words that lived only in the libraries of North Melonia, where the old lord had spent many of his younger days. Words that danced on his tongue just as assuredly as hymns: “’In the land of ice, where the water meets the stones of old, the night comes alive with lights and power. There, it begins. There, all their dreams be found. A treasure greater than knowledge and wealth. Winter-Summer, Life-Death. All are there, in perfect balance, not a one alone. The daughters have come.’”   
His soft words faded into the bustle of the stables, their implications masked by the sounds of animals and menial labor.  
“Are we sure this land is the one?” Lord Wilfred asked after a moment. “The words are vague, they could refer to many places.”  
“Queen Elsa is all the proof we need.” The prince said with conviction. The words had left him with an overwhelming sense of excitement.   
“How so?”  
“Look at her. A woman with the powers of winter. ‘In the land of ice’?” A gleeful chuckle escaped his lips. “Where there is one, there must be others.”  
“Others? You really think there are other women with these powers in existence? And of all places, here?”  
“The passage speaks of four, does it not? What if they are here? We must find them.”  
Lord Wilfred toyed with one of his gloves. “Well, then what do you want from me? The scriptures say nothing more. I have no idea where these ‘others’ could be.”  
“Oh my dear man, you’re looking at this all wrong.” Christian clapped his companion heartily on the shoulder. “They are not necessarily here. Elsa obviously knows where they are. All we need to do is convince her to ally with us in uncovering them. Your relations with Elsa are strong. Perhaps they could be even stronger. Or more beneficial.”  
Lord Wilfred took a step back, trying to passive-aggressively assert his age over the younger man. “Beneficial? To you, you mean?”  
“You, me, our kingdoms, sure.”   
The prince’s nonchalance was not appreciated by the Lord of North Melonia.  
“This is nothing more than a foolish young man’s fantasy.” He scolded Christian. He was shaking one of his gloves at the prince, as if contemplating smacking him across the face with it to reprimand him further. “You are wasting your time chasing a story, gambling all your hopes on an ancient myth made to scare children to behave!”  
“Is Elsa not proof of that ancient story?”  
Lord Wilfred was silent.  
“She has a unique…gift.” Christian figured that was the best way to phrase Elsa’s circumstance. “One I simply plan to benefit from. For the sake of my family and my people.”  
“She froze her entire kingdom.” Lord Wilfred reminded him. “Hardly beneficial. Unless you’re planning to start exporting ice.”  
Christian actually laughed. “But that was months ago. She can control the power now. She has gained mastery over the season…somehow she has learned the secrets of the spirits… why else would Arendelle be free from this so-called plague of the seasons?”  
“Why do you care about Arendelle’s weather?” Clearly, Lord Wilfred knew they both knew Elsa had about as much everyday influence over the weather as the horse chewing on oats next to them. Sure she could conjure ice and snow but that didn’t mean winters were any shorter or milder.   
Prince Christian was a little insulted that the scholar did not think better of him. “I’m sure it’s obvious. The Isles are suffering an inexplicable loss. For the second year in a row, our harvests are failing. Just as they have elsewhere, the seasons have turned on us and we cannot fathom how or why. We cannot sustain ourselves indefinitely at the rate this is going. Not without this trade and more. If we had control of the seasons…not just winter but spring and autumn as well…”  
His passionate explanation was cut short by a scoff. “And you plan to do what? Encourage Elsa to trust you enough that she shares this… this knowledge with you?”  
Undeterred, the prince leaned forward, his eyes shining. “Imagine what we could do with such power! To command the seasons…life and death themselves!  
Lord Wilfred shifted uncomfortably. “We have no desire for it.”  
Christian was an expert negotiator. He’d been reading people for years, determining the moment when resolve faltered, when doubt or fear began to creep in and change opinions. With Lord Wilfred, he knew he’d just reached that moment. All it would take now is a little push…“Oh, but I think you do.” He surveyed the lord coldly but not, one could say, unkindly. “You are suffering as well I think. Why else would you, a northern country, be demanding ice?”  
Lord Wilfred stiffened. “You really think Elsa would help you?” He replied, ignoring the comment about his kingdom’s resources. “I hardly think you worthy of her trust. After what your brother did here, she has every reason to never make contact with you again.”  
The Prince’s face darkened considerably. Anger clenched painfully in his gut. “My youngest brother is…indisposed. I do not wish to speak of him.” The words were uttered through tight lips. He had not received news for several days. He was beginning to worry. “And Arendelle is hardly in a position to be emotionally-influenced for trade agreements. The queen knows this. Elsa will eventually see a partnership with us as her only way out. Elsa agreeing to renew our countries’ long-standing partnership is only the first step. There are many more to follow my good man.” The Prince placed a gentle hand on the older man’s shoulder and lowered his voice ever futher. “You will see, partnering with us may very well split Arendelle at the seams, spilling her wealth out for all to reap…” His grip tightened, becoming far from comforting. “and then we shall enter and discover the gifts the prophecy promised…and claim it as our own.”  
His horse was brought before him, a gorgeous chestnut stallion with one white sock. Prince Christian swung himself into the saddle and leaned down to give the lord his final words. “already the whispers have begun…Queen Elsa may find she had fewer allies among her people than she thinks…and if the moment arises, we will not hesitate to use that to our advantage. Elsa will find she has little choice but to help us…or relinquish all her treasures…and if she will not comply…” He smirked, a thrill of excitement racing through him. “Then she may just find herself stranded.” Even the skeptical Lord Wilfred shuddered at those words.  
The older man took a step back from the prince. “Alright.” He said quietly, his obedience and compliance clear in his voice.  
Prince Christian sat up, finally feeling good about the progress of his plans. “I knew I could count on your assistance…I will be in touch soon.”  
Preoccupied as they were, neither of them noticed that one of the stable lads in attendance did not have a horse to attend to. Nor did they notice the same stable lad, slide into the shadows, throw off his jacket and slip away into the night.  
***  
For the first time in months, Elsa was sleeping alone. She pulled the blanket up to her chin and tried to get comfortable in her seemingly much-to-large bed.  
Anna had tried to convince her to let them bunk together that night as they usually did but Elsa had been firm.   
“It’s your wedding day, Anna.” Elsa had told her, emphasizing the words as Kristoff had set her down on her bed. “You should be with your husband.”  
“Not while you’re upset.” Anna had said stubbornly shaking her head.  
As much as Elsa wanted nothing more than for Anna to chase her nightmares and lingering fear over today’s events away, she had flatly refused. She would not be so selfish as to steal Anna away from Kristoff on their wedding night.   
But the sacrifice was proving more difficult than she had anticipated.  
"Some strong, independent queen I am…" Elsa thought as she adjusted herself again, unable to get comfortable. I slept alone for years, what is the problem?  
The pain had all faded away but the memory of it clung to her. She knew she was firmly back in control but now there was a lingering dread: what if it happened again?  
Finally she managed to find a position that did not serve to remind her of the absence of Anna in her arms: pillow in her face, arms wrapped tightly around it.  
Elsa let out a huge exhale and tried to sink into sleep…  
Elsa…  
She sat bolt upright at the voice in her head. Her heart was racing, ice was gathering at her fingertips.   
“Isen?” She called out softly, hardly daring to hope it was true.  
Elsa…  
But it was then that Elsa realized this voice was familiar. And definitely not the illusive winter spirit.   
“Branna?” Elsa called softly inside her own mind.  
The voice echoed back, like a half-formed thought in the back of her mind.  
Yes, it is I. I’m reaching out to you. Answer me in your mind, child.   
Elsa didn’t really know how to go about doing that but it seemed that she’d already done it once so it couldn’t be that hard.  
“What do you want?”  
Something has happened. Is Isen awake?  
“No. I still can’t reach her.”  
You know me. Isen knows me. She is in there somewhere. Call to her, bring her out.  
“I cant…she isn’t…there’s nothing there!”  
There has to be. There cannot be a host with the powers of Winter without Isen’s presence.  
“It’s just me! Nothing else! No matter what I try, she’s not there! Even today, when I lost control of my powers, I didn’t feel her!”  
…I feared as much…Don’t worry, Theonia will be there soon.  
If anything, that only made Elsa worry more. “Wait…no! She can’t come here! Why?”  
We are running out of time. You need to find Isen before we try to go after Død. Only Isen will be able to convince the spirit of Autumn to stop torturing her host.   
“Why?”  
Død was the first to be cast out by the Mother. Isen willingly joined her in exile and convinced Livet and myself to do the same. Autumn will only be driven out by the coming of Winter. Please, reach out to Autumn, tell her we are coming…tell her to stop…  
“Isen isn’t there! I haven’t…”  
Elsa awoke to an incessant tapping on her window. She didn’t remember falling asleep but sometime during her mental conversation with the fire spirit she must have. She sat up and looked towards the window.  
The face outside it was by no means one Elsa hoped she would see again soon.  
Throwing back her sheets, she crossed to the window and pried it open.   
“Theo! What are you doing here?” She was glaring but that in no way prevented the tiny flutter of that flame still flickering in her chest as she took in the woman who had been haunting her sleep for months. Those red eyes staring back at her only made her feel more confused about the whole thing.   
If Theo noticed the emotional turmoil of her glare, she said nothing. Her own glare was just as hard. “Looking for you.” She replied. The fire host was hovering just outside the window, supported only by a crumbling sand platform haphazardly attached to the ledge of Elsa’s window.  
“I thought I made it quite clear to Garret that none of you were welcome here.” Elsa told her, making no move to let her inside.  
Theo let out an exasperated sigh. “Well we can’t exactly give up on you. You’re our best hope.” She stumbled a bit as a large piece broke off of the platform under her and Elsa suddenly found herself gripping the girl’s arm as if she could prevent her from falling.   
Their eyes shot to each others’ but Theo did not allow the contact to linger. She looked away first and Elsa noticed her eyes briefly scanning her and suddenly became aware of just how flimsy her nightdress was. She released Theo’s arm immediately and fiddled with her hands, trying to decide if crossing her arms would make the whole thing less awkward or not.  
“Branna sent me.” Theo continued moving to sit on the windowsill and averting her gaze. Under her feet, the sand platform crumbled into grains and fell. “Said it was urgent, that you needed my help.”  
“I don’t need your help.” Elsa replied stubbornly.  
Theo huffed tiredly. “Well then you two better have a damn good reason for why I just high-tailed it over here on a tornado.”  
“…a tornado?”  
Theo nodded. “Yes. They’re quite effective for high-speed travel.” She swung her legs inside and stepped down from the window only to promptly fall flat on her face. “Though I do not recommend them for the already delirious…” she muttered into the carpet.  
Elsa hovered next to her, trying to decide if she should help the girl up or not. Before she could make a decision, Theo pulled herself upright using the thing closest to her. Which just happened to be Elsa herself.  
Theo looked horrified as she realized what she was holding and abruptly released her grip.  
“There is still no sign of Isen?” She asked, apparently straining to keep her voice within its normal range and tone.   
Elsa was still trying to process the idea of creating and riding a tornado. And forget how Theo had just used her as one might a wall. “You road a tornado over here because you thought I might be in trouble?” Too late, she realized there was a touch, just a touch of surprised flattery in her words.   
Theo brushed herself off and Elsa noticed that her legs were trembling. “No,” She said, sounding a bit defensive. “I rode a tornado over here because Branna and I felt the same thing you did.”  
Elsa shivered, recalling the fit that had overcome her earlier that night. “What was that?”  
Theo’s gaze darkened. “That? That was Død throwing a tantrum.” She turned to Elsa. “They’ve finally reached the breaking point…Autumn is on the move and dangerously strong.”  
“So what does that mean?”  
“It means, if we don’t get to her soon, we’re all in a heap of trouble.” Theo wrung her hands and Elsa saw a few sparks flare briefly. “Now that she’s fully awakened, her power will be easier to trace. But she’ll be stronger, angrier…”   
“We’ll need to move sooner.” Elsa guessed.  
Theo nodded. “We’re leaving in two weeks. As soon as we locate her.”  
Elsa jerked back in surprise. “Two weeks?! Garret told me it would be around the solstice! When was this decided?”  
“About two hours ago.”  
The queen crossed her arms angrily. “And you were just going to show up here and pull me away like last time?”  
Theo’s eye snapped to hers. “Is it really too much to ask you to at least visit the temple once in awhile? Then you would at least be in on these plans.”  
Elsa glared back, letting loose the fullest extent of her commanding gaze. “You know that is impossible for me.”  
Amazingly, Theo’s gaze dropped. “You don’t have to stay…” She began slowly, “just visit…once in awhile…”  
The vulnerability of that statement, threw Elsa entirely off guard. She felt the anger slip from her face as she examined the other host.  
Theo was still examining the floor, fidgeting with her hands. Her hair had grown out slightly in the months they had been apart, it now hung thickly about her head instead of as a short stubble. Her brows were drawn tight over her eyes but her lips were pursed tightly together. There was still a stubborn set to her features but under that, Elsa could see the insecurities plain as day.  
"Is she…afraid?" Elsa wondered.  
“Could you please stop radiating cold?” Theo suddenly snapped.  
Elsa realized that the temperature in the room had dropped so much she could see Theo’s breath. Calming herself, she let the room warm again.   
“Why don’t you just warm yourself up?”  
“Summer’s over.” Theo said flatly, rubbing her arms. “My powers are waning.” She blew out and a thick cloak of smoke emerged from between her lips. “That’s about the warmest air I can project right now.”  
Elsa waved her hand to keep the smoke out of her face.   
“You flew here just fine.”  
“If you consider about to pass out as ‘just fine’, I really think you need a new understanding of the concept of ‘fine’.”  
Elsa couldn’t help it, she giggled. She couldn’t believe she had actually missed this bickering. To her surprise, a hearty chuckle accompanied her own. Theo was laughing with her.   
It was truly transformative: even this small bout of laughter caused her entire face to open up, her fiery eyes calmed to display a pleasant warmth and her tight shoulders visibly relaxed. Without the usual worry or anger creasing her brow, Theo looked younger, more hopeful and stronger.  
As the two shared their mirth, Elsa suddenly realized that this was the first time she was seeing Theo look happy.  
Looking at her like this made Elsa feel…safe. For the first time in weeks, she didn’t feel like she was trying to hold off a panic attack.   
“Seriously, we may need to invest in a new royal dictionary for you or something…” Theo quipped as their laughter began to fade. The statement was so light, so without any form of the malice that Elsa had come to expect that her laughter abruptly ceased. She realized just how closely she’d been watching the other girl these past few minutes and felt a blush creep up her neck.  
Their eyes met and Theo’s face became serious once again.   
“Not a word of this to Scara.” She told Elsa, sounding like it was of the utmost importance that this joke remains between them.  
“Why not?” The queen asked, puzzled. She assumed Scara would be thrilled they were finally getting along.  
“Winter-Summer, Spring-Autumn. We’re a matching pair, however you want to interpret that.” Theo wrung her hands. “Scara cant stop dropping hints…” She muttered, more to herself.  
Elsa tried to ignore the way her heart skipped at those words. “Such as?”  
Theo looked like she wanted to start pacing but lacked sufficient strength. “According to legend, Isen and Branna were lovers in the ancient times, sisters only by marriage. Then they separated for some reason, causing the seasons to come at opposite times of the year.”  
Her face contorted into what may have been a wince but Elsa knew so little of her expressions that she didn’t know what it could possibly mean.  
“Are you sure you’re okay?” She asked.  
Theo stiffened. “fine.” She practically spat, her face pale. Elsa noticed her knees trembling dangerously.  
Moving towards her bed, Elsa patted the covers. “here, sit down. Maybe that tornado took more out of you than you realize.”  
Slowly, without protest, the fire girl sank down, keeping her hands well away from the flammable fabric underneath her.  
“Better?” Elsa asked. Theo only nodded curtly.   
“You really haven’t gotten any closer?” The summer host asked, sounding skeptical. “At all?”  
Desperately, Elsa shook her head. “Meditations aren’t working…I’ve tried everything.” She leaned against the corner post of her bed, wrapping her arms around it as if it could provide her the necessary comfort. It couldn’t.   
Theo peered up at her, examining her closely for a moment. “Well then, we’re going to try something different.”  
“Different?”  
Theo shifted so that she sat cross-legged on the bed, facing Elsa. “Yes. Since Isen cant be coaxed out, we’re going to have to force her out.”  
“Force her?” Elsa was beginning to get a sense of dread. She recalled what happened last time they had tried something ‘different’. She was not keen to experience that again.  
Theo nodded. “It’s worked before without fail.” There was a certain bitterness in the way she said the words. “She may not like this, but it’s the only way.” She laid her hands open on her knees and gestured for Elsa to join her.   
Elsa moved to take Theo’s hands but something stopped her. Her hands remained suspended in the air, unwilling to drop those several inches to make contact with the summer host’s.   
“What’s wrong?”  
Elsa flexed her fingers. “Nothing.” She sat facing Theo, trying not to look in her eyes. Why did her chest suddenly feel like she had a blush?  
Slowly, she lowered her hands into Theo’s. The hot fingers tightened around hers firmly but not constrictively.   
“Now, think of a distressing moment in your life.” Theo instructed. “A moment where you felt your life was in danger or when you lost control of your powers. Keep your eyes open but let the memory play in your mind…”  
Elsa pondered only for a moment before her mind invariably settled on something. She shuddered.  
“Now, I need you to focus, think of that painful memory.” Theo said softly, the heat in her hands beginning to crawl up Elsa’s wrists. “It will help draw Isen out. The spirits respond to intense emotional distress. Often times it awakens them…”  
I picked up my skirt and dashed up the icy stairs as quickly as I could. They had gotten past my guard. They were coming after me…they were going to corner me…  
Theo’s calm voice, like a gentle, glowing ember broke the memory. “Now…while still feeling that distress, expand your mind…think of Autumn…of what you felt earlier. Try to see where she is…”  
Elsa tried, she really did but all that kept coming to mind was the attack on her ice palace. The scene kept flashing before her eyes in broken segments, her vision going white in between...   
“Stay away!” I shouted. They didn’t move. I shot ice at one of them but he jumped out of the way…  
The heat in her hands intensified. “Focus Elsa…don’t go too deep into it…just keep to the surface…”  
The surface? Already she was six feet under, struggling to rise back out.  
The younger was pinned against the wall, an icicle merely an inch from his throat. All it would take was a flicker of my finger and he was gone.   
She felt herself shiver. The waves were coming faster, she couldn’t avoid them.  
“Elsa…?”  
I pushed the other one, he was no match for me…none of them were! He was right on the edge, a few inches more and he would fall…  
A strong, desperate voice from behind me broke through the murderous haze…  
“You’re not trying to relapse… you’re just trying to frighten Isen awake, like escaping a nightmare…”  
Nightmares? Nightmares were exactly the problem…she was trapped in nightmares.  
“Queen Elsa! Don’t be the monster they fear you are!”  
I stopped, inches from ending two bright lives…  
What had I done?  
“Elsa…Elsa stop, you’re going too far again…”  
She was trying to stop. But she couldn’t, the pain was too raw, too intense. There was no ice to comfort her, to numb the pain away…to lock it away in a flawless mirror…  
…a shattering sound…the great snowflake was falling… I was running…too slow…  
“Elsa!”  
Abruptly, the illusion shattered just as her first chandelier had and Elsa drew a deep, shaking breath, gasping to fill her empty lungs as she crashed back into reality. The heat had moved from her hands to her face, a gentle, reassuring pressure accompanying it.  
Theo’s hands were on her face, staring deep into her eyes.  
“Are you okay?” She asked, sounding desperate. She gazed at Elsa, her eyes burning.  
Elsa found herself gazing back ,desperate for something to ground her after the turmoil of those memories, the confusing shift between reality and memory that she had just weathered. Those solid, glowing eyes were her lifeline, her rock in this storm. This was reality. Here. A gentle thumb stroked her cheek, sending a sliver of heat shooting through her. A silent promise. She was here. Theo wasn’t going to let her drown in her own mind.  
As her breath slowly began to quiet, Elsa realized just what she was seeing. Theo’s eyes. Or, more accurately, the look in Theo’s eyes. This time it was different from that eye-lock they had shared at the ice palace. Instead of deep, unspoken attraction, this time she saw…she saw something…familiar. The same turmoil, the same fear, the same shyness and self-doubt that looked at her from every mirror when her thoughts turned to the girl before her.   
And something new. A tenderness and care that she had never witnessed before. Concern.  
Here, looking into her eyes so closely with no expectations, no barriers or impressions in the way, she was finally seeing the Theonia everyone kept assuring her existed.  
Elsa didn’t know who leaned in, perhaps they both did, perhaps their faces were already the correct distance apart. Regardless, the icy coolness of her lips suddenly made contact with burning hot ones.  
Elsa had to admit, she’d never imagined her first kiss would be like this.  
The lips under hers were hot and dry like the desert but they quickly moistened under the cold wetness of her own.   
Theo exhaled, her warm breath invading Elsa’s mouth and against her logical mind, the queen felt herself sliding further into the kiss. She pushed back, asserting her cold, hard lips into the fire against her mouth and heard a small moan in response, almost like ice expanding.  
The sound seemed to switch something off inside Elsa’s head, as if someone else had taken the controls, rendering her little more than a marionette doll. Her thoughts faded away and she felt as if she were slipping into another meditation. Only this time, Theo was right there with her. Together, their collective skin was joining the ice, dancing in the flames.  
Theo leaned even further forward into the kiss, her mouth falling open and Elsa suddenly found her tongue sliding along a hot lower lip. She felt Theo shiver. She felt sweat gather on her forehead. Theo shifted slightly, her nose brushing Elsa’s cheek and gently took Elsa’s lower lip in her teeth. Her hand shifted from Elsa’s cheek to gently cup the back of her neck.  
Elsa’s hands twitched, wanting to join the binding of fire and ice, to exchange two opposites to make a new whole. Before Elsa could stop them, they left the bed and circled around Theo’s neck, right at the same time those impossibly hot hands slid down to her hips. Strong fingers tightened on her hips.   
They fell back onto Elsa’s sheets, the sudden motion breaking their lips and shattering the moment that had been created. Elsa’s eyes flew open at the loss of heat and she once again found herself lost in those haunting ruby eyes. Theo stared right back, although Elsa could see a fear in her eyes that kept the connection from consuming her as it had before. That fear was intoxicating and Elsa soon felt a trace of it within herself. What were they doing? For a moment, it seemed they had both lost control of their actions completely. Their chests were pressed flush together and they were both consumed with a feeling of warmth and cooling, of rising and falling in time with their tangling breaths.  
It was all Elsa could do not to give in to the undeniable pleasure of the contact. Or be consumed by her fear of that pleasure.  
Steam was curling around Theo’s ears and Elsa could feel it licking at her face. Theo’s hands were on either side of Elsa’s hips, her thumbs still barely brushing Elsa’s hip bones.  
She was very glad she had not worn an ice nightdress tonight.  
Slowly, her eyes never leaving Elsa’s, Theo pulled away and sat up.  
The loss of heat from her made Elsa’s entire frame begin to tremble, as if part of her had been torn away with the loss. She quickly sat up, trying to hide her feelings by focusing on her breath. Surprisingly, her heart wasn’t racing like she expected it to. She straightened her nightdress, unable to look at the other girl.  
“I’m sorry.”  
Elsa looked up. Theo refused to look at her and her quiet utterance sounded more like a confession than an actual apology. Like she had just wanted to try that as another method for waking Isen.  
Inexplicable anger surged through Elsa as she looked at the fire-girl. She felt cheated, played, used.  
How dare she.  
“Leave.” The word slipped from her lips before she could consider saying anything else.  
Theo stood, and in a completely uncharacteristic display of obedience, crossed to the window, opened it and jumped out with sand swirling around her. All without sparing Elsa so much as a glance. Letting Elsa send her away this time.  
It shouldn’t have stung but it did. Elsa leapt up and slammed the window shut with a force she didn’t know she possessed. A few loose particles of sand danced from the window to the floor. She started to pace, walking the short distance from her window to her door and back with as much focus as if she were climbing a mountain. She wrung her hands and forced herself to breathe deeply to keep the snow at bay. With Theo away from her at last, the anxiety of the past few months was creeping back, even stronger than before. Along with an undeniable frustration that only one person had ever aroused in her. She didn’t like it.  
How can she be so hot and cold? Elsa wondered as her bare feet scuffled along the carpet. And why, gods, why? Why does being around her make me want to both kill her and…She struggled to find the right word. observe her and being away from her just make me want to see her again? One second they were arguing and the next…  
She shot a blast of ice towards the window, watching it crawl across the glass and seal it tightly.  
Elsa didn’t want to remember the kiss, she really didn’t. Not because it had been bad or good or sinfully lustful or even because it was her first.  
No, she didn’t want to remember because for that one moment, those few seconds when their lips had locked and drawn them together, she hadn’t felt scared or alone. She’d been half of a whole. The nightmares had ceased to matter.   
And she didn’t want to remember that that was a possibility granted to her by the source of half the nightmares themselves.  
She wanted to be free of those nightmares.   
The queen flopped back onto her pillows, throwing one arm over her face to muffle a sob.  
Why hadn’t she asked Theonia to stay? Just for a bit? As a companion, nothing more, someone to talk to and hold her? To take away the sting of the memories? The bitter taste of loneliness that she still hated, despite the familiarity?  
To have someone to wrap their arms around her and whisper in her ear to chase away the nightmares?  
"Because you’re a coward. And you’re not sure if you want this. You’re not even sure what this is."  
Elsa curled in on herself as she felt frost begin to coat her blankets and walls. She bit her lip.  
Then why had she kissed back?  
***  
Sometime after leaving Elsa’s room, climbing back down the wall and heading out towards the fjord, Theo felt the now familiar pain ripple through her middle section. She doubled over, biting her lip hard to contain her cry. She was standing on the beach, near the docks that stretched out a little ways into the glittering water.   
You are just leaving?!  
Theo felt blood trickle down her chin and she drew a shuddering breath before replying to the voice in her head. “She asked me to.” The pain doubled if that was even possible.   
We call the moves, she does not.  
Theo scrambled for something to hold her up as her legs trembled and her chest constricted painfully. “Branna…I can’t breathe…” She collapsed against a piling, her fingers scrabbling for purchase as her feet kicked the sand.  
The two of you cannot ignore this. You are compatible hosts, the first since Ileana and Erin. That means something is coming that will take your combined strength to combat. Something is about to happen, something big. The strength of this attraction is proof of that.  
Theo took a few painful deep breaths as her vision swam. “Something did happen…” She managed to choke out, ignoring the spirit’s other comments. “And it happened a long time ago with no one stopping it.”  
She stifled a moan of pain as the spirit assaulted her again.  
Do what must be done then. We must be able to join ourselves to Isen in anticipation of whatever is coming. Your actions should have pulled Isen out. Why is she still hiding?  
The pain was making her irritable and by no means more logical. “Well I have an idea…why don’t you go in there and ask Isen yourself instead of forcing me to toy with Elsa?”  
Her vision went black as the pain roared strongly in her ears and pierced straight to her soul.  
DO NOT MOCK ME, HUMAN! DO YOU FORGET I AM A GODDESS?!  
Breathing shallowly and rapidly, Theo forced her eyes upward, into the dark sky. The lights dancing above her head managed to pull her from the pain for just a fraction of a second. A calmness rushed over her. She wondered if those lights were the hair of the Mother, spilling out over the earth softly, gently for no reason other than beauty…   
That moment gave her enough strength to pull through.  
“’Compatible hosts’, that’s all you keep saying!” She spat to the fire host, pulling herself up so that her stomach was pressed against the piling, dulling the pain somewhat. “Like it’s already decided that the two of us are meant to be. I know it’s mostly you putting these uncontrollable thoughts and urges in my head. I know you’re only doing so because you think it will serve some greater purpose!” She slipped slightly and growled, determined not to let the spirit best her. Not this time. Summer was fading and so was Branna’s strength. “While guess what? Maybe I decided not to let you decide this for me! Maybe Elsa just doesn’t feel the same! Did you ever consider that?” She was shouting by this point but she didn’t care. Let someone hear her, it wouldn’t change a thing. “Maybe I’m just playing with her feelings by doing this!”  
Don’t be such a child Theonia. I am far older and wiser than you and I know what I am doing. You are playing with fire, hoping I will not choose to burn you.   
“I’ve been doing that for years. Even though I know you always do.”  
There was a moment of blissful silence in her mind, even though the pain did not lessen as the fire spirit burned with a quiet rage within her, choosing not to let its thoughts be known to her. Theo began to feel her vision slip into blackness again and fought to regain consciousness.   
It was several minutes before Branna spoke again.  
This Død situation isn’t going to make things any easier.  
Theo could feel the spirit’s attempt at an apology in both the words and the return of her vision. She blinked, finding tears swimming in her eyes. “You think I don’t know that?” She replied quietly. “Everything could go up in flames now…Council, spirits, nations…” She finally managed to get her feet back under herself and found her fingers had burned little circles into the piling during her spasm. “How can we make this right again?”  
The whole reason I got you access to the castle was for you to make this right. You had a perfect opportunity and you cast it aside. What is going on with you?  
Theo felt her own temper flare. “That was never our responsibility.” She said through clenched teeth. “Frankly, it shouldn’t be anyone’s responsibility!”  
It is of more importance now than ever before. We need Elsa to be at full strength and Isen awakened and ready to take on an angry Død.  
“You really think this would help? Because it wouldn’t! She’d be crushed, devastated. Then how would our whole ‘compatible hosts’ arrangement work out?” Theo’s lower lip trembled with something other than pain. “She…She’d hate me.”  
Perhaps there was something in the way she said those words that got through to Branna.  
The pain finally faded completely. Theo gasped for breath, and slid off the piling as she fell to her knees in the sand, letting the relief overtake her.  
You… you let yourself love her, didn’t you?   
Branna actually sounded shocked.  
For all my meddling, for all the prophecies and legends…you actually love her.  
Theo didn’t feel the need to answer the spirit inside her. Those words hurt far more than she imagined any physical pain ever could.


	10. As Autumn Approaches

It had been two weeks since the wedding and she still could not stop worrying.  
Anna’s hand danced to her hip, missing the comfortable weight of her sword strapped there. As much as she wanted to, she did not carry it everywhere with her. Despite her affinity for the blade, people would not take well to an armed princess, especially one so notoriously clumsy otherwise. She walked down the hallways of the castle, hand on her naked hip, looking for her sister.   
It was mid-morning and the sunlight was painting the stone walls a bright, happy yellow color through the high stained-glass windows. Anna, however, was in no mood to appreciate the sight. She was alternating between wringing her hands and reflexively reaching for a sword she knew wasn’t there. If she stopped either action, she might cry.  
Anna had checked the royal chambers, the library, Elsa’s office and even the dungeon her sister seemed to have an odd habit of visiting sometimes but there was still no sign of the queen.   
Another wave of anxiety and nervousness passed through the princess and she hugged herself tightly. She had to find Elsa. Anna trembled slightly and bit her lip. She couldn’t be alone anymore. Not now.  
Not when Anna needed her big sister.  
Elsa had gotten better at opening up in the months before the wedding; coming to Anna with problems and always opening her door when Anna needed to talk. Elsa had spent a lot of time with Kristoff before the wedding as well, teaching him castle etiquette and the history of their ancient family lineage. The three of them had spent several afternoons together, swapping childhood stories and laughing about Anna’s latest antics.  
But since she and Kristoff had married, Anna had seen the walls begin to creep back up in her sister. Elsa was busier and when the sisters did spend time together, she was distant and at times even cold. Anna knew Elsa wasn’t put off by the fact that her sister was now married. Elsa and Kristoff were practically siblings already with the way they discussed everything from ice harvests to religion and Kristoff’s unspoken agreement with her that the path up to Isen lake always remained just icy enough that he didn’t need to use his wheels to cover the distance.   
No, it was definitely not Kristoff making Elsa act so…different. Anna wasn’t even sure it was entirely about the lapse in control in her powers that had happened that night. She had spoken to her sister the following day and Elsa had assured her that she would stay in control so long as she stayed calm and relaxed. It had been a one-time thing and it wouldn’t happen again. The statement had been almost off-handed, as if Elsa didn’t really think it was that concerning, even though she had been unintentionally making small flurries the entire conversation. No, Anna knew this was a little more complicated than Elsa worrying about her powers.  
Elsa had been drawing more and more in on herself since the wedding and Anna still had no idea what to make of it. This was not the fearful isolation that had characterized Elsa’s childhood and the first few days after the Thaw. This was a thoughtful isolation, as if Elsa were contemplating something troubling or difficult to fathom and retreating into her thoughts hoping to find an answer.  
Anna poked her head into the empty kitchens, contemplated the chocolate briefly then left again. She switched her actions to biting her lip and tangling her fingers together.  
She knew Elsa was worried about something. Something other than losing control and hurting people, other than Anna and Kristoff’s marriage. But what?  
Anna considered the possibilities. Matters of state she tended to vent to Anna about. When it was the Isles she got very quiet and flustered until Anna coaxed it out of her. If it was about her disappearance a few months back, she went very blank and changed the subject. When it involved personal matters…  
Anna stopped walking. Her hands fell limply at her sides.  
Personal she tended to draw in on herself. Grow cold and distant and never tell Anna anything.  
The princess smacked herself, both mentally and physically. How could she have missed that? Elsa had hid behind doors her entire life dealing with personal matters. And it was up to Anna to drag her back out and talk about them.  
If only she could find the door Elsa had hidden behind this time.  
Out of rooms to check and quickly losing her fragile hold on her confidence, Anna slipped out the servant’s entrance and into the private back courtyard of the royal family in the hopes that fresh air might clear her head.  
The elaborate and spectacularly well-maintained garden of the back of Arendelle castle was a sight reserved only for those of the royal family and the caretakers. Anna and Elsa’s mother had created the garden and worked tirelessly in her spare time to make it flower and flourish. After the death of their parents, Elsa had ordered a caretaker brought in to tend to the garden endlessly throughout the year. It truly was a work of art: the former queen of Arendelle had had a gift for mixing and matching arrangements so that the garden remained healthy and vibrant every season. Even now, as autumn tightened its death-grip on the land, toad lilies and zinnias were proudly bursting open with intricate patterns and the tall oak trees that surrounded the courtyard were dripping in reddish-purple leaves.  
This garden had always been a place of serenity and bittersweet joy for Anna. It was a piece of her mother, preserved forever in a private spot of the castle. She’d spent many afternoons here, listening, as if she could hear her mother’s voice again, singing quietly as she tended the flowers or fed the ducks.   
Anna took a deep breath, her mind quieting as she entered the special space. Her heart leapt when she realized she’d also finally found Elsa.  
The princess’s eyes widened as she watched Elsa move around the courtyard.  
Her sister was alone in the center of the courtyard, dancing. It was such a poor attempt to describe what the queen was doing but Anna couldn’t think of a better word.  
Anna herself had often described Elsa as boundlessly graceful and impossibly fluid in her movements. She would have been a superb dancer without the aversion to touching others holding her back. If she had to chose a metaphor to describe her sister (and Anna was terrible with metaphors) the best she could approximate was a snowflake, twisting and turning peacefully on the wind as it plummeted to the earth below.   
Elsa took no notice of her sister. She was lost in a world Anna could never begin to understand.   
Her wrist drifted out to her side the rest of her body following in a gentle, whip-like snapping motion. The other hand swung down, making a flurrying circle as it passed her knee before cresting upwards. She stepped out with one foot, her entire body shifting effortlessly into the new position, her ice cape swirling on a cold breeze.   
Her movements were careful, controlled, each one appearing to require great focus and years of hard discipline to execute. But if Anna knew her sister, Elsa was doing this all by feel. It was as natural to her as breathing.  
Every motion of her body added a new pattern or spire to the creation above her. Every twist and gesture made the snowflake more complex and unique. As the snowflake swelled, Elsa suddenly threw both her arms up in the air. She absorbed the entire creation, the power pulsing through her. Throwing her hands out, the queen released the snowflake, suddenly twice its original size and set it spinning across the garden. Before it had even begun to drift downwards, Elsa had begun construction of her next one above her head.  
Anna glanced around. There were several dozen giant snowflakes drifting around the courtyard, each one distinctive and impossibly detailed.   
A smile pulled at Anna’s face. Oh yes, this was definitely yearning heart behavior.  
She stepped forward, attempting to catch her sister’s attention. But Elsa remained oblivious to her audience, still dancing on. Her beautiful snowflakes accompanied her in her dance, not a single stray drip or shard of ice touching any of the delicate flowers surrounding them, not a breath of wind moving the snowflakes further up or down.  
Clearly, this was taking a lot of control.   
Briefly in her dance, Elsa turned to face her sister, her eyes closed, her face arranged in a careful expression of concentration. But there was desperation there too. A desperation to hold that concentration no matter what. It was her ‘conceal, don’t feel’ face.  
Anna watched her sister with a mixture of pride and sorrow. Could Elsa have met someone at the wedding?, Anna wondered. Someone she now couldn’t stop thinking about? Even though Anna smiled at the thought of her sister finally having someone to love in her life, she couldn’t help but hate the idea a bit.  
For the longest time, Elsa had never given anyone the slightest hint that she was at all interested in marriage… or carnal desires.   
Elsa finished another giant glittering snowflake and sent it spiraling away from her on a miniature tornado. Just before it hit the wall of the garden, it changed direction and sling-shot back past its creator, joining the dance.  
Anna tightened one hand into a fist, her own nervousness momentarily forgotten as she contemplated her sister’s romantic inclinations. Yes, Elsa deserved someone. Someone who loved her but could share her. Anna didn’t want to lose Elsa ever again. She’d only just gotten Elsa back after years of separation. She wasn’t about to go sharing her with some prince or lord. Least of all without getting to know him first anyway.  
“Elsa?” Anna called.  
Her sister stopped, freezing in place like she had just turned to ice. The snowflakes stood still in midair, holding their breath. Waiting for the creator to set them free again.  
“What are you doing?”  
Slowly, Elsa turned around. “I was just…I…I was…I was dancing.” She reached up and tangled her fingers nervously in the loose end of her messy braid.  
“Yeah, okay.” Anna began, far calmer than she felt. “Why?”  
Anna could practically feel the stress rolling off of her sister, like gusts of wind over the snow. Her entire body was coiled and stiff like she expected to have to run at any second. Whatever was on her mind, Elsa didn’t want to talk about it.   
Doubt began to creep into Anna. Elsa was scared. Not a: I have feelings for someone and it scares me kind of scared. This was a crippling kind of fear, the kind that had sent Elsa running to the mountains and made ice creep over the fjord.   
Anna glanced down, seeing frost crawling out from her sister’s feet in all directions, threatening to encompass a tiny lily that had sprouted at the water’s edge. Perhaps this was a little deeper than a crush.   
Unsure of what to do, Anna did what she did best: blurted out something completely unrelated.  
“I didn’t know you ever came here…”  
Elsa uncoiled, if only slightly. “I…usually don’t…for the longest time I was afraid of…of killing everything.” She confessed. The light frost around her evaporated. The lily was spared.  
Anna tore her gaze away from the delicate flower and smiled softly at her sister. “So why now?” She asked gently.  
The queen was wringing her hands. “I needed the space…” Elsa confessed. “the privacy.” She waved her hands at the motionless snowflakes and they faded into nothing.  
“Oh Elsa, don’t destroy them!” Anna protested, running forward. “They’re beautiful!” But it was too late, the snowflakes were gone.  
“They have no place here, Anna.” Elsa said sadly. “They have to go.”  
Now that she was closer, Anna could see the physical changes in her sister. The dark circles under her eyes that stood out prominently on her pale skin. The dent in her bottom lip where her top teeth had worried it. The curl in her hair where she’d twisted strands of it continuously around her finger.   
She’d never seen Elsa look so…vulnerable. So lost. Anna knew it was not the time to push Elsa too hard. She might bolt. But that was okay. As much as she wanted to, Anna didn’t need to know what was bothering Elsa right now. Right now, she needed her big sister.  
“Are you busy?” Anna asked timidly. Her hand danced to her hip again.  
Elsa stiffened. Immediately the queen mask snapped back into place. Elsa was hiding behind her duties. Again. Closing the door on personal matters. Again. “When am I not? Lord Wilfred wants to go over trade agreements again before his departure, something about ice sculptures…I’m hosting a lunch with three potential suitors, despite venomous protests on my part…and…” she sighed heavily, her fists opening and closing several times. “I have a meeting with the Isles in less than an hour. Prince Christian has finally haggled me enough to establish a definite negotiation for the relationship of our kingdoms.”  
Disappointment crashed through Anna, making her knees tremble. Elsa was too busy for her. “Oh…right.”  
Something in Anna’s quiet voice slid under the mask, slipped right under the door and slapped the queen in the face. “What is it Anna?” She asked her gaze softening.  
The princess shook her head violently. “Nothing! It can wait.” Anna backed away, fumbling with the door back into the castle. Tears burned in her eyes. Elsa was busy now, she had political affairs to deal with and her own feelings. She didn’t need her whiny little sister taking up her time. Not right now.   
“Anna.” Her sister’s voice made her stop but not because it was full of the queen-like demand for obedience Elsa could project effortlessly. Anna slowly turned back to Elsa. “Don’t ever run away from me when you’re scared.” Elsa said gently.  
Anna felt a tear slip down her cheek. The next thing she knew, cool arms were around her. She gave a little grunt of surprise. Elsa had never initiated the contact. She had always accepted. Never initiated.   
Anna buried her face in the crook of Elsa’s neck, breathing in the scent of freshly fallen snow and icy wind. It was Elsa. It was comforting. Elsa stroked Anna’s shoulder lightly, trying to still her trembling with careful attention. “What’s wrong?” She asked.  
Anna just shook her head, fighting back more tears. She was choking on the words.  
Elsa pulled back so that Anna was forced to look her in the eyes. Elsa was scared but this time it was different. This time, she was scared for Anna. “Anna, what’s happened?”  
Anna could feel Elsa’s ice crackling along the palms on her arms, agitated by her concern about her little sister. The freezing touch was somehow comforting.  
Anna swallowed hard, gathering up the scattered fragments of her courage to finally say what she’d discovered this morning.   
“I’m…I…” How was it these were the hardest two words she’d ever had to say? “I’m pregnant.”  
Elsa was silent for a good long time. So long that Anna began to worry. The wind rustled through their mother’s garden behind them, sending a few dead leaves drifting into the pond, breaking the serenity of the surface.  
Anna started to pull away but Elsa’s grip suddenly tightened.  
“Come with me.” She tugged Anna’s arm, pulling her not towards the castle but deeper into the garden.   
Anna protested half-heartedly, flailing her free arm. “But…I thought…you…meetings…the suitors Elsa!” She didn’t want her sister to miss out on a chance to see her crush again just because she couldn’t handle this herself. Her protests were cut short as Elsa pulled her into another hug.   
Anna felt Elsa smile against her cheek. “My schedule suddenly opened up.”  
The queen gently stroked Anna’s bangs back from her forehead. The tenderness in her eyes made Anna feel like she was five years old again. “My little sister needs me.”  
***  
It wasn’t working. The snow just kept coming, thicker and thicker, building into a blinding wave. She waved her hands at the swirling winds, thinking of her sister, of happiness, of lifting the Great Freeze.  
Nothing happened.  
She could hear the screams of people freezing to death mingling in the howl of the icy gale that spiraled tightly around her. She flicked her hands at the howling winds, ineffectively batting at the storm from the epicenter. They only howled louder.   
It was out of her control.  
She fell to her knees, to the hard ice on the fjord. Frozen tears pricked at her eyes, crackling along her skin as they fell. Above her, the storm raged on.  
How do I stop it!?  
Suddenly there was a warm gust of wind slicing through the frozen air. A hot knife through frozen water. The gust caressed her as it passed, making her heart stop. The snow winds stopped swirling. A strong scent of smoke and sand surrounded her and rippled across the fjord. All of Arendelle fell silent.  
The other descended from above, carried on a summer breeze. Smoke and sand swirled around her, mingling with her hair and curling around her skin. Her eyes glowed with fire and warmth. Confidence. She was…beautiful.  
Summer stopped in front of her, gazing warmly down into her eyes. Red meeting blue. Fire melting ice. The warmth dispelling the cold.   
Steam.  
“Take my hands…” Hands slid into her own. Warmth gushed through her along with the realization that everything would be okay. They were together again.   
Together they could reverse the storm.  
Strong, hot arms circled around her, lifted her from the ice and into the warm air. “We’re a matching pair…” Said the voice in her ear, like smoke curling around a burning stick. “we balance each other out…” the warm breath traveled across her cheek drifting ever closer to her lips…burning her…  
Elsa jolted awake with a cry. She was alone. No warm breath on her face. No other there with her. In the bed. That same bed where…  
“Dammit!” The rare swear slipped from between her lips before she could stop herself.  
Elsa buried her head into the sheets and jammed the pillow over her head to muffle her sobs. Snow drifted quietly down from the ceiling and formed tiny piles all over the bed-sheets. This was the third time a dream like that had happened since the kiss.   
Elsa clawed at her ears, wishing she could forget the comforting sound of that warm voice, the tingling of her skin where the breath had stroked her, the accompanying freedom that had washed over her as they came together.  
It couldn’t happen. It would never happen.  
Elsa bit back a wail of pain. This was almost worse than the never-ending nightmares.   
Almost.  
***  
Far away, behind thick stone walls, a host was arguing with her tutor. Again.  
“No, Goren. There has to be some other way!”  
Goren took a deep breath, trying not to get angry. “Mistress, I’ve told you time and time again, this is how it has always been done. This is the only way to remedy such a problem.”  
The troll winced as smoke dribbled from between his mistress’s lips. He unconsciously pulled the flammable book of Erin’s scriptures closer to him as Theonia pushed herself off of the library table and threw her hands in the air.   
“But this is IMPOSSIBLE!” She roared. Luckily, it was late autumn so the outburst only triggered a little hot air and a few grains of sand. “The princess shouldn’t even be alive! She shouldn’t have even been conceived! HOW IS SHE ALIVE?!”  
Goren brushed sand off of the table before replying in a very calm voice. “Because my family gave up their obligation. We stopped monitoring this. We stopped acting on it. They broke the Mother’s Doctrine.”  
He could see his mistress trying desperately to calm herself down, to bring herself back under control. Goren watched her with concern. Things had been rough for the Head Councilor these past few months, that much had been obvious in the sand storms that had become a daily occurrence after she returned from Elsa’s ice palace. But it hadn’t just been the storms, her physical appearance had changed radically as well, more violently these past two weeks than he’d thought possible. She’d lost so much weight that the temple dress drooped on her frame. Her eyes looked sunken, dark and dim and he could see marks on her arms where she’d dug her nails into her own skin in anxiety. Her hair had grown out further than it had in years, probably because she’d stopped trimming it herself with fiery fingers.   
She was suffering in silence. But why, he could not fathom. Usually, she spoke to Garret or himself about anything at all that troubled her. She may be the one in charge but they were a family. They suffered together. Yes, their situation was rough but not that rough. Not yet anyway. Everything could still work out. Maybe. He wasn’t going to let her worry herself to death over this.  
“Perhaps this is a sign that the Mother’s rules have changed.” Goren suggested, struggling to pile one of the large books back on a stack. “It’s happened once or twice before.”  
Theo snorted. “Coinciding with a spirit refusing to emerge? I don’t think so. No, this is a punishment for breaking the rules.” She wrung her hands. “We’re all being punished for this imbalance…”   
With her disheveled appearance and her crazed muttering, Goren couldn’t help but think about the stories he’d read of Erin towards the end of her days, when she became obsessed with writing prophecy and degenerated into, as the stories put it ‘a batty old lunatic’. “So what are you going to do?” He asked.  
Theo’s eyes snapped to him and he saw her fire return, if only slightly. “Nothing! It is not my responsibility!”  
“But still it concerns you greatly.” He pointed out patiently.  
“It does not!” She protested vehemently, banging one fist on the table. “I am merely baffled by the circumstance.”  
Goren stared her in the eyes firmly. “Mistress, don’t think I haven’t noticed that you haven’t been sleeping.”  
Theo was silent at his observation. She averted her gaze.  
“are you and Branna fighting?” The troll asked.  
Theo sighed, softening slightly. “Not quite.” She paused. “Can it be called a fight if I always lose?”  
Goren did not reply but they could both feel his sympathy in the silence.   
The two of them had been in the library for four days straight, pausing only for desperately needed rest and food breaks in their endless quest to track down Død. Now it was nearing dawn of their fifth day. But so far, the only promising lead they’d gotten was an image that Theo claimed kept haunting her when she and Branna reached out in meditation.   
Walls of decaying leaves…pillars of skulls…a moat of blood…  
A palace of Death.  
“Apparently, Død’s host went to the Elsa school of hiding herself…” Theo had muttered at one point as the two had pondered what the image could possibly mean.  
“Or…” Goren had suggested. “she wants to be found.”  
Goren watched Theo collapse in a chair and reach for the quill again. She ran her hands over it, pulling the barbs gently through her fingers. She did not attempt to write anything. After all, there was nothing to say.  
They had nothing else to work from. Only ancient predictions and a name on a scroll that still made no sense.  
“Let’s focus on one thing at a time here.” The troll suggested, pulling himself back to the present concerns. “Get Autumn home and calmed down and then we’ll deal with this.”  
Theo laughed humorlessly. “Deal with this? You sound just like Branna…”   
“What does she want you to do?”  
Theo poked herself on the wrist with the sharp tip of the quill. From the look on her face, Goren thought she was trying to draw blood to use as ink.  
The disturbing thought was accompanied by another. “Oh merciful Mother…does she…?” Theo looked up from her poking, meeting his gaze steadily with her tired eyes. Goren swallowed hard. “Branna wants you to…to…?”  
“She wants me to do many things. I am incorrigibly stubborn.”  
“But…what about what happened between you and Elsa? Did she say anything about that?”  
Theo pulled her shoulders up and shrank back from him. “I don’t want to talk about it Goren.” There was no anger, only a tired plea for him to leave the subject alone.   
“It’s nothing to be ashamed of.” Goren assured her. “It’s only natural that Branna and Isen are drawn to each other.”  
“I’m not ashamed of it. Elsa and I nearly killed each other once.” Theo deadpanned. “I hardly call that attraction.”  
Goren wanted to say something to make his mistress laugh but found himself at a complete loss. He wished Garret were here, he could always make Theonia feel better.  
“Is there any way to end it?” Theo asked in a quiet voice.  
“The attraction?” Goren shook his head. “I’m afraid not, not unless Branna and Isen mutually agree that their bonding is no longer necessary and seeing as…”  
“Yes, seeing as Isen is still not awake…”  
Goren grimaced. “She really must be deeply buried if she’s reaching out like that…and if Branna’s unconsciously reaching back…”  
Theo actually laughed. “Oh, her reaching is by no means unconscious…” She said bitterly, dropping the quill back on the tabletop where it rolled to a stop atop a biography of Død’s past hosts. “If she’d had her way, I’d have taken Elsa right then and there with no preamble.” Her fists were clenched tightly and trembling.  
Goren pondered this for a moment as only a scholar could. “There was really no reaction when you kissed?” He asked. There hadn’t been an attraction between them this strong since the days of the first hosts. If he were the scribe that got to witness such a thing…!  
Theo shrugged. “I wouldn’t say that. Elsa was pretty angry about it…”  
Goren was a little disappointed. “She didn’t appear to enjoy it?” He was certain he’d seen the potential there in Elsa when they’d spoken. Not that he was an expert in human love but he’d gotten the distinct impression that the snow queen was not without her own inclinations towards the fire host, however deeply buried and confusing they may be. Especially after what Theo had told him about what had happened in the ice palace.  
“No.” Theo said in response to his question. She pressed the palms of her hands again her eyes and sagged against the table.  
He didn’t believe that. “Are you sure?” Goren pressed. “Maybe she was just surprised.”  
“You weren’t there.” Theo mumbled into her hands, not looking up.  
“I know Elsa better than you think. I think you’re entirely ignoring what she might feel.”  
“Don’t say things like that Goren.” Theo said in an uncharacteristically shaky voice. “Even if she did, it wouldn’t work. It couldn’t last. We’d kill each other.”  
“It worked out well for Ileana and Erin.” Goren reminded her. He pulled a scroll towards him and scanned the Arendelle birth records again.  
“They were legends.” Theo lamented. “They were practically gods themselves.”  
Goren didn’t look up from his work. “You and Elsa could be too. There is that potential in any host.”  
“I don’t want to be a god, Goren. I’m already a terrible host.”  
“You are not.” He said firmly. “Branna chose you. She knows what you are capable of and more.”  
“Be that as it may, no matter what she thinks I’m capable of, I don’t like my body being used as her personal puppet.” Theo shifted slightly, so that her hands were covering her eyes again. “To her, this is all just a matter of prophecy, of circumstance, she doesn’t take our feelings into account at all.”  
“But they only do this with good reason.” Goren told her, his gaze scanning down the long list of names. “They feel the attraction, it is something that always exists between Branna and Isen the same way it does between the twins, Livet and Død. But it is only reflected and expressed in the most powerful of their hosts. Those who become most necessary for preserving the order.”   
He’d finally found the name again: Princess Anna of Arendelle. Born about nineteen years ago. Recently married. Currently with child.   
It was that last part that troubled him, although he could not quite say why.  
“Ileana and Erin really just let themselves be used like that? They were okay with it?”  
He looked up to find Theo had uncovered her eyes. She was looking at him in mild disbelief. “For a greater purpose.” He said. “They bonded themselves and ended the Turmoil of the Descent. Years later, they died together.”  
Theo’s gaze darkened. “Romantic. Was that their choice or did Isen and Branna decide they wanted an even playing field for the next generation’s council?”  
“You need to give them a little more credit.” The troll told her. “They don’t know what’s going on here anymore than we do. They’re afraid for their sister, they’re afraid for the future and for all of you. So they are taking precautions.”  
Theo pushed herself away from the table and stood up. “Yeah, well so am I. But I’m not prepared to hurt Elsa like that for this.”  
Goren softly observed her again, studying her resolve, the fire in her eyes. There was something she wasn’t saying and she knew he was aware of that. Apparently his assumption about her feelings towards Elsa had been right. And that only complicated this whole thing more.  
Goren sighed softly. He knew Theonia didn’t entirely believe that the spirits considered their hosts as anything more than a temporary body. She’d always had a bit of skepticism that the spirits had the best interests of the humans at heart, a trait which had been growing stronger in her since she’d met Elsa. Goren couldn’t blame her. With everything that had happened to this generations hosts, between Isen remaining infuriatingly silent, Død torturing her host, Livet accidentally psychologically damaging her host and Branna’s continued manipulation of everyone, the spirits were certainly appearing more malicious than he had ever been told they had in the past. Truly, these were trying times.   
Goren tried a different approach.   
“What has the Mother told you about all this?” He asked, looking down at the scroll again. “About the princess and what you must do?”  
“That’s just the thing.”  
Goren froze at the tone in the Head Councilor’s voice. A chill went through him and his grip on the scroll tightened. He looked up.  
“She hasn’t said a word. Not since I learned of Princess Anna’s existence.” Theo turned to face him and now he truly saw just how far she had fallen. Theo’s eyes were distant and hollow, lost in an insidious, crushing hopelessness.   
“The Mother has stopped talking to me.”  
***  
Anna couldn’t sleep, not after all the events of the previous day. It was just past dawn and she was uncharacteristically wide-awake, her boots propped up on her mother’s old desk, staring at the parlor ceiling.  
She was pregnant. With a child. Kristoff’s child.  
She ran one hand across her stomach but felt no change under the touch. But she couldn’t deny it. She was late, for one and in the past few days she’d stopped craving chocolate at all hours yet she was able to smell what was for dinner from half-way across the castle. Something was clearly wrong with her.   
Not wrong. Anna thought with a smile. She laid her hand flat against her stomach. Something is very, very right.  
She still chuckled at the way Elsa had reacted.  
“So soon?” The queen had asked as they sat together in the zinnias, Elsa creating several new snowflakes to swirl among the flowers.   
She knew Elsa hadn’t intended to make her laugh with that. But it had. So much. And that had just been the beginning of Elsa helping her feel better about all this.   
Anna had paced and babbled, trying to express just how nervous and scared and just unprepared she was for this. How worried she was about health and the process of giving birth. If she would be a good mother.  
Elsa had listened attentively and patiently to the whole thing but at this point she giggled.   
“Anna,” She had said, smirking. “Your child is the luckiest child in the world.”  
Anna had cocked her head to the side, confused. “Why?”  
Elsa had smiled, the action lifting the fatigue from her face, chasing away all fear, if only for a moment. “Because they will have you for a mother.”  
Anna had been shocked to silence. She had listened as Elsa calmly and nonchalantly spoke to her.   
Elsa may have had far less experience with marriage, intimacy, relationships and children than Anna did. But she was still her older sister. An incredibly wise and thoughtful older sister. She still knew exactly what to say to comfort and assure her little sister that everything would be okay.   
And it would be, the princess realized. She’d have people to support her, she’d learn as she went just like Elsa said. She was not alone.  
Smiling in contentment, Anna tucked her arms behind her head. The ice bangle on her arm clinked.  
Anna’s eyes snapped open as her heart stopped.  
Right. She still had to tell Kristoff.  
“Princess Anna.”  
Anna looked around, not at all surprised to see Reba slipping out of the door behind the fireplace.  
The queen’s parlor had been equipped with an emergency escape route for the royal family: a door hidden by a clever laying of the bricks behind the fireplace. It was impossible to see unless you stood inside it. This was part of the reason Anna had chosen this room. The Informers could easily enter the castle without attracting suspicion, as the other end of the tunnel came out near the docks.   
Anna smiled pleasantly at the quiet girl. “Yes Reba?” Except for perhaps Dagrun, Reba was Anna’s favorite Informer. The girl was very sharp and perceptive and she had a wall about her that Anna couldn’t help being fascinated by.  
She did love to break down walls.  
“I wasn’t expecting a report today.”  
The young girl stood next to the fireplace, unwilling to come any closer. But she kept eye contact with Anna at all times. “This isn’t a report ma’m.” Reba said. “I’ve come with a warning.”  
Immediately, Anna sat up straight. “A warning?”  
“Someone’s been following Elsa.”  
Anna reached for the scroll where she’d been keeping track of reports of her sister and who she met with. “Someone we’ve seen before? Is it Christian?” Despite months of unsuspicious behavior from the prince, Anna was still convinced the Informers would soon catch him in a criminalizing act. With the Isles it was only a matter of time.   
Reba shook her head. “No ma’m. It’s a new foreign visitor.” She told Anna.  
“Who?”  
“I don’t know but one of ours overhead him asking about the castle and the queen in the tavern.”  
Anna put the scroll aside. “What did he look like?”  
“Small, thin with a very mean face. Our kid bumped into him and said that it felt like he had something hidden under his cloak. He left the tavern an hour ago and headed towards the town center.” Reba’s perfect, calculated recitation of the report always amazed Anna. The child had an uncanny memory.  
“Where is Queen Elsa now?” She asked her spy.  
“Our last reporter said she was on her way to the harvest ceremony for her address, princess.”  
They were supposed to have gone together. Elsa had left her behind. Anna stood up, grabbing her sword. It lived in the parlor room, another piece of her Ice Informers project. Another part of the secret life of Arendelle’s princess.   
“Thank you Reba.”  
“Do you want me to come too, miss?”  
Anna nodded. “Take the route from the docks. Go straight to Elsa and keep an eye on her. And if it looks like anything is about to happen, stop it.”  
Reba nodded in understanding and slipped back out the secret door.  
Her heart pounding, Anna buckled on her weapon and dashed out the door, heading for the stairs.   
Kristoff was standing just outside the door, his hand raised to knock. “Anna! The festival is starting, I thought we were…wait where are you… Anna!” She ignored her husband entirely as she jumped on the banister and slid down it as fast as she could. She was halfway down before she’d realized that she’d just missed her opportunity to tell Kristoff their wonderful news. But that would have to wait.   
As she sprinted out the front gates, Anna lay a hand gently over her middle. Telling the father could wait. It would have to. She had something much more important to deal with first.   
***  
Christian was not a violent man. Still, that didn’t mean he wasn’t sometimes inclined to want to hit something.   
He slammed a fist against the table in the king’s parlor, the smack ringing in the silence. So close and still…   
An unattractive snarl slipped from his polite lips. He’d missed his chance, again. Time was running out.   
He’d arrived at the castle early today, hoping against hope that his punctuality would somehow allow him to meet with Elsa first thing in the morning. But once again, luck had not been on his side. Today was the last day of the harvest festival and the queen had left at dawn to oversee it.   
To keep himself from hitting the table again, Christian turned away and faced the window. He’d had to make special concessions to even get the queen to agree to the meeting yesterday and then she’d gone and cancelled on him. For a family concern.  
Christian scoffed as he looked out over the courtyard below him. He had twelve brothers and family concerns popped up once a week at best. Queen Elsa appeared to have family business everyday! How was that possible? She had no family, except…  
Anna.   
He gripped his sword tighter. That princess was a problem.  
He hadn’t thought so at first. Sure, she’d been an obstacle but not a problem. Now though, after spending several months here, he was beginning to see what Hans had mentioned. The bond between those two sisters ran deep. Impossibly deep. Elsa cared for her sister very much and let her feelings influence her duties and political decisions.  
Christian paused in contemplation, stroking the slight beard he had acquired during his stay here. But maybe this could be used to his advantage…Anna was young, recently married and prone to getting in trouble. And she loved her older sister. A lot.   
Christian narrowed his eyes. A potential weakness for the queen perhaps. Little siblings had a habit of causing that…  
The door behind him slid smoothly open, startling him out of his scheming.  
“Elsa? Elsa…oh.”  
Christian spun around, reflexively loosening his sword. A young blonde girl smiled at him from the doorway. Christian did not recognize her. After spending several months here, he knew most of the nobles and servants who frequented the castle. This girl was not one of them.  
She entered the room, her smile not faltering for a moment. She was dressed in a simple but colorfully decorated black dress. A toad lily was tucked behind her left ear. Her bright, wide eyes took in everything, glinting in mirth and child-like wonder. In spite of himself, Christian found himself smiling back.  
Before he could say anything to the girl, someone else entered the room. “Scara…how many times do I have to tell you not to…oh, hello.”  
The oddly-dressed guard, the girl’s brother perhaps, bowed slightly to Christian. “Please do pardon our interruption.” He said politely as he straightened up. There was a large battle axe strapped securely to his back and several knives glinting at his waist. “We are looking for the queen. Any idea where she might be?”  
Christian stopped himself from trying to guess the boy’s age and answered the polite inquiry. “I believe her majesty is in town today.” He recalled. “Some kind of harvest festival.”  
The girl perked up instantly if that were even possible with how excited she already looked. “a harvest festival? That sounds fun!” She gripped the man’s arm. “There must be some great flowers and plants around, Garret. Maybe we could…”  
“Thank you sir.” The man said, giving the girl a sharp but warm look. “We should be able to find her.” He took the girl by the hand and tugged her out of the room. Christian found himself smiling again as the girl waved goodbye.   
Christian turned back to the window, for some reason unable to stop thinking about the people he’d just met. And of course that meant he couldn’t stop smiling.  
The girl seemed familiar, and not just because of her friendliness. He touched his ear gently, as if the girl’s flower were resting there. Her blonde hair and green eyes…almost like the description he’d read about a girl from Corona who could bring life with her touch…  
Before he could consider the thought any further, the door opened once more. Christian spun eagerly but it was not the girl again. Rather, a young messenger boy had entered, baring a letter for him.   
He knew his disappointment was prominent, especially in how he snapped at the boy to leave him alone, sending the lad scurrying out of the room.   
Christian shook himself, trying to overcome his unjustified frustration and examined the letter in his hand. It was sealed with the crest of his elder brother, Anderson. The Crown Prince of the Isles. And over the seal was a golden X.  
His blood froze.  
No…no…my time has run out…  
Without even bothering to break the seal he tore the letter free of the envelope and shook it open. His eyes scanned the page desperately, each word that he read making his heart sink further and further…  
***  
The Arendelle Harvest Festival was usually a pretty subdued affair. The Arendellians did like their parties but they were a simple folk, happy with simple festivals honoring traditions rather than grand achievements.   
This year however, their festival was elaborate and ornate, decorations hanging from every window ledge and barrels of the finest glogg lining the streets for the common folk to indulge in. Musicians and street performers had been called in from all over the country to make the streets come alive with sounds and tumbling acrobats. The Lights of Autumn were hanging from every high place available across the city; tiny lanterns meant to ward off demons and ask for good fortune this harvest.  
Elsa had suggested the expanded festival this year at the approval of her advisors. It was meant more as a morale booster for the citizens. Things were looking better and it was time they celebrated this.   
Today, the last day of the harvest, was the conclusion of the festival and the festivities were in full swing. Elsa walked alone down the streets of her city, mingling with her people in the early morning light. Well, mingling was not entirely accurate. The people cleared a path for her as she came, as if she were a parade, pulling their excited children back and scolding them for trying to reach the ‘fun snow queen’. Elsa tried not to let the distance bother her, instead, she did her best to greet everyone she passed, even pausing for a longer conversation occasionally. They all seemed genuinely happy to see her, thrilled that she was taking the time to interact with them.   
But Elsa knew that for some, it was a smokescreen. She longed to slip in among them again as she had so many months ago while tailing Christian, just to see how much easier it would be now after months of adjusting to crowds and intimacy. To hear them talk of her without the seal of royalty holding back their true opinions.   
“My queen!” Elsa paused to greet the owner of Arendelle’s Snowflake Tavern (a place that, contrary to popular belief, had had its name for twenty years prior to the queen’s birth).   
“Holger. Good to see you sir! How runs the ale?”   
The portly man chuckled at the line Elsa’s father had often used in greeting the city’s inn-keepers. “Well, my queen. It looks like we will survive the winter after all! I must say, the Freeze granted the grain a particular chill that my customers have quite enjoyed.”   
Elsa fought the guilty twinge and smiled pleasantly at him. “I’ll have to come by and taste it for myself sometime soon.”  
He seemed startled and bowed deeply. “It would be an honor, my queen.” Elsa smiled at him and continued on her way, her skirt swirling around her legs. No ice dress today, instead she’d chosen a soft, violet dress that was simply but beautifully adorned. Several people had already commented on how much like her mother she looked in it. Elsa found the comparison both humbling and troubling.   
By this point, the sun had fully risen and the light lit up the fjord in a burst of late-fall red. It was time for the last day of the festival to officially begin. The last day of harvest.  
As Elsa turned, making her way towards the erected dais in the center of town where she would make a short speech about how they had overcome the challenges of the past few months, a familiar voice suddenly screamed, loud enough to pierce through the mindless chatter of the other civilians. “Elsa!”   
At that precise moment, a child broke from the crowd and smashed into her, hard enough to make her stumble. Elsa turned in surprise as she regained her footing. What was…?  
There wasn’t a chance to finish the thought.  
Had Elsa turned just a second later, the blade would have pierced right through her heart, killing her instantly. Instead, the fine point of the ice pick sheared across her left side, biting into her flesh and drawing warm blood. It seeped across the violet fabric, turning it the color of dying leaves.  
Before Elsa could even summon her ice, before she could even really comprehend what had just happened, the assassin had drawn another deadly sharp probe and had it headed for her heart. It was shattered by a blow from a much larger weapon.   
Then the wave of pain hit her and Elsa fell to her knees. “…Garret.”  
The guardian brought the handle of his axe up, smacking the assassin under the chin. Elsa heard a crunch of breaking bone and the man fell to the ground, blood pouring from his mouth and nose.  
In a second, Garret was over him, stepping on the man’s hands to prevent him from drawing more weapons. The assassin cried out in pain and fear as he looked up at the towering man before him.  
“’The enemies of the Mother’s children will be dealt swift justice from her Guardian…’” Garret said in an ominous voice, his eyes like chips of flint. “’Any who wish her children harm will meet the Mother by his blade…’”  
He lifted his battle-axe like an executioner, the razor-sharp edge glistening. The assassin’s eyes widened and he went still and silent. The surrounding crowd was as still as a frozen lake, struggling to understand what they were witnessing.  
Garret readied his weapon, blind to all but his victim. “’…And the cycle shall continue unbroken.’” He finished.  
“Garret, no!” Every head in the crowd turned from the scene to the voice that had cut through the silence. A young blonde girl was standing beside the kneeling form of the queen, her green eyes swimming in barely held-back tears as she clutched her chest. “Let Elsa decide his fate.” The girl said, her voice quivering.   
The guardian paused, his axe held over his head. He glanced over his shoulder at Queen Elsa.  
Elsa swallowed hard, forcing her voice not to dry up. “Lock him away. I will speak to him.”  
Elsa was relieved to see the fury and lust of battle immediately drain from Garret’s eyes.   
“Of course, Elsa.”  
He lowered his axe and allowed the stunned Arendelle guards who had swarmed to the commotion come forward and apprehend the assassin. The crowd was descending into confusion and uneasy mutterings as everyone tried to figure out what had just happened and who the queen’s strange protectors were.   
Holding one hand to the bleeding wound, Elsa tried to rise to her feet, to reassure her subjects that she was fine but found she could not. She got one foot under her but it quickly gave up, sending her back to her knees. The wound in her side burned and she couldn’t seem to think straight enough to summon ice for it.   
Elsa looked up and noticed a small head of ginger-red hair melt effortlessly into the shifting crowd.   
Was Reba…was she watching…? Did she warn me?  
Elsa stumbled again but this time arms encircled her as she fell and held her up. Yellow-blonde hair fell against her face.   
Scara was subtly pressing a large leaf to the bleeding wound in Elsa’s side. “It will help heal you…” She whispered, her voice thick with tears. “Just hang in there…”  
Elsa could only nod, her head starting to swim. The pick must have been poisoned…  
Another arm circled around her shoulders and supported her. Elsa heard the rumble of Garret’s voice as he began to lead her back towards the castle, taking care near her injured side.  
They walked past the guards, who had successfully apprehended the assassin and were leading him towards the dungeon.   
The assassin spit in Elsa’s direction as she passed him. The little flecks of his spittle and blood hit Garret’s cheek and hair.  
“Filthy ice witch!” The assassin growled. “You don’t belong in the world of men!” A guard cuffed him roughly on the side of the head for that comment.  
“You will show the queen the proper respect, villain!”  
The crowd once again split open as Elsa approached, although this time, it looked like they were clutching their children to them in fear. Elsa couldn’t tell. The world was becoming muted, colors were swimming together. It was like a dream. A terrifyingly real dream.   
She fell against Garret and felt him adjust his grip so that he could carry her completely. The arm she had draped against his back was touching the handle of his axe. Scara was holding the other hand. Her touch felt gentle but unbreakable. Calming in this storm.  
She was slipping away fast. Just as her vision began to fade, Elsa saw her through the crowd. The one person she didn’t want to witness what had just happened but, who undoubtedly had seen everything. She squirmed once in Garret’s grip, reaching out.  
“…Anna…”   
Then she blacked out.  
***  
When Elsa woke, it was to her sister’s anxious eyes hovering over her.  
“Oh thank the gods!” Anna pounced on her, pulling her into a tight embrace that made the queen’s head spin.   
“…Anna…head…hurts…”  
Thankfully, Anna loosened her grip. She pulled back, holding her sister by the shoulders so she could look into her eyes.   
“We were so worried! Reba came and told me you were being followed, so I rushed out to warn you but by the time I found you in the crowd, you’d already been attacked. That man, with the axe, he was going to kill that assassin, he carried you up here by the way. Not the assassin, the man with the axe…and the girl stayed by your side the whole time…”  
Anna continued to babble and Elsa took a moment to slowly sit up and get her bearings. They were in her room. Late afternoon sunlight streamed in through the window, falling across her blue sheets. The festival was long over.  
She shifted and realized her dress had been removed. A thick wrapping of bandages circled her chest, covering the wound on her left side.  
“Who was that?” Anna suddenly asked. “The man who saved you? And the girl?”  
Elsa stiffened, the action sending a painful twinge through her head.   
“I’ve never seen them before.” Anna said. “They’re not from Arendelle are they?”  
Elsa wrapped one arm around her bound chest, gently touching the covered wound. “Where are they now?” She asked. She was deflecting and she knew Anna knew. But she wasn’t about to tell her sister about why Scara and Garret were here.  
“I sent them to the drawing room.” Anna replied. “They didn’t want to leave you but I assured them you were safe with me.”   
Elsa glanced down. Anna was still wearing her sword.  
“How do you know them?” Anna asked.  
“I don’t.” Elsa said, not entirely dishonestly.  
“But if you don’t know them then why did you trust them to save you?”  
Elsa leaned back, placing one hand on her forehead. “Everything just happened so fast Anna…”  
“Don’t blame it on that Elsa.”  
Her eyes snapped open. Anna was angry. “What?”  
The princess’s gaze was hard, she was gripping the sword at her waist rather tightly. “You know exactly what I’m talking about.” She said harshly, throwing Elsa off guard. “We were supposed to attend the festival together.”  
All her political training informed Elsa that in a confrontation such as this, looking away would show guilt. Looking away would open her up for further attack leading to a loss of ground. Looking away was the wrong thing to do.   
She looked away.   
Elsa blamed it on the fact that she’d just been attacked, that there were still remnants of poison coursing through her veins, that her head still swam. But she knew the real reason. She would let Anna hurt her forever. She didn’t want to fight back against her little sister the same way she did her political opponents.   
If Anna realized the significance of the gesture, she didn’t show it. “Why didn’t you call for me?” She asked, the anger slowly fading from her voice. When Elsa didn’t answer her face fell. There was a moment of silence. Then realization seemed to strike Anna like a bolt of lightning. “You…you knew…” A shaking, accusatory finger was pointed at the queen. “You knew someone was coming!”  
Elsa closed her eyes so she wouldn’t have to see how she had betrayed Anna. “No. But I suspected. So I protected you.”  
The anger from before boiled back to the surface. “I am not a child Elsa!” Anna shouted at her. “I don’t need your protection! What about you! He was going to kill you!”  
Elsa glared at the snowflakes patterning her bedspread. “I know. And I wasn’t about to expose you to that.” She sighed. “I didn’t call you because I didn’t want to put you in danger.”  
Elsa heard the faint sound of a blade rattling in its scabbard. “You…you really think I couldn’t protect you, don’t you?” Anna asked softly.  
Something swelled within Elsa. Something that stung but comforted all the same. A feeling that would not let her lose this argument. “What about your child, Anna?” Elsa said calmly. Her sister froze, one hand reflexively dropping to her middle. Elsa looked away again but the damage was done. “What if something happened to it while you were defending me? What then?”  
Anna turned away from her, tears burning in her eyes, one arm wrapped tightly around herself. Elsa couldn’t look at her. She hadn’t meant to reprimand her sister. But the way Anna had looked outside; sword drawn, eyes burning, ready to fight an army to defend her sister. It had frightened Elsa. She couldn’t let Anna sacrifice herself so recklessly for her. Not again. Never again.  
Elsa threw back the sheets, needing some space to think, to process. To keep Anna away from her.  
Anna would of course, make that infinitely difficult. “Where do you think you’re going?” She demanded as Elsa stood on unsteady legs.   
“The dungeons, to interrogate the assassin. I want to know who wants me dead.”  
“Oh I don’t think so.” Anna said and Elsa could hear the shaking attempt at their mother’s voice in the words. “You were just almost killed, you’re staying in bed.”  
Elsa ignored her and reached for a dress. “I feel fine Anna. I’m doing this.”  
“Then I’m coming with you.”  
“No.” She pulled the dress over her head, not noticing right away that she had picked up the black temple dress completely by accident. “I have to do this alone Anna.”  
She walked towards the door but Anna blocked her way, arms spread wide. “What makes you so sure that you have to do everything alone?” Anna asked her, her gaze piercing Elsa straight to her core. “I thought we were past this Elsa! I thought we were a team!”  
Hating herself, Elsa played her final, most powerful card. “Have you told Kristoff yet?” Anna silence was a good as an answer. “Don’t you think you should?”  
For a moment, the power struggle raged silently between them, neither daring to slip the slightest for fear the other would swoop in to claim victory. It was like a negotiation between nations, relations on the brink of war if there was only one wrong move.   
It was not the way sisters were supposed regard each other.   
They remained that way a good long while. Stuck once again. Another wall they could not scale.  
Finally, a victor was decided.   
Anna’s shoulders slumped. Her eyes narrowed. And (to Elsa’s amazement) she backed away.  
“Fine.”  
Elsa left the room, leaving Anna behind, biting her lip to keep the pain at bay. Someday, Elsa hoped Anna could understand how much it hurt the queen to have to treat her like a politician. Just how much it hurt to push her sister away. Just how much of Anna’s life would be salvaged from all that pushing.   
Anna could not be a part of this life.  
Not if Elsa wanted to keep her sister and her new niece or nephew safe.   
***  
Memories of the dungeons were understandably anxiety-inducing for Elsa. Not just from her time as a prisoner here but now from all the failed attempts at meditation that had seemed to be only a painful look into her deepest psychological disorders.   
But for once, she was not down here alone. For once she would not be the one in the cell.   
As she approached the dungeons, Elsa dismissed the three guards who had accompanied her down into the bowels of the castle.   
“I’ll be fine.” She said as the captain went to protest. “He’s in chains and I have no intention of letting him get close to me. Wait outside.” She had a feeling she would want to question this assassin alone.  
Outside the door leading down to the cell was a small alcove for the guards. It hadn’t been used for quite some time, seeing as the last prisoner in the dungeons had been Elsa herself and she’d kept it empty in the months since to practice meditations. She dismissed the guard behind the desk as well, preferring no one hear what might be exchanged between the man and herself.   
Before going down, Elsa examined the belongings taken from the prisoner, scattered on the guards’ table for her observation: a number of those sharp ice picks, one of which was covered in her dried blood, a small money purse, a vial of greenish powder, a flint, a long cloak and a rough whetstone. She took careful note of each one. She picked up one of the picks (not the one with her blood on it). Then she entered the dungeon.  
The man looked up as she entered, his tiny eyes narrowing as he saw who his visitor was.  
“Ah, if it isn’t the Ice Witch herself…come to freeze me to death?”  
Elsa ignored the jab and the venom in his voice. It was certainly odd to not be the one in chains in this room. Although she could sympathize with the prisoner, she felt no sympathy for him. The man before her was not the Duke of Weselton, nor anyone she recognized as one of his associates. But everything about him reminded her of that little man: his nasally voice, his wiry hair that looked fake, his tiny, mean face and the distinctly rat-like air that oozed from his words and movements. And who else would send an assassin meant for her?  
Elsa held up the pick so the man could see it. “I must say, for an assassin, you did not come well-prepared.” She kept her distance from him, standing by the door. Even with the chains, she was taking no chances with the man who had just failed to kill her.  
He moved back slightly, the chains binding him to the floor rattling. Elsa experienced a moment of unwanted empathy. “I was not expecting the witch to have protection.” The prisoner spat. Dried blood from Garret’s attack covered his mouth and chin.   
Elsa shrugged. “It was self-appointed.” She said, her voice set. “I wasn’t expecting him either.” That in no way meant she was unhappy about Garret’s perfect timing. “Who sent you?” She asked him.  
The man curled in on himself. “I’ll tell you nothing!” He hissed at her defiantly shaking his manacled hands in her direction.  
Elsa coolly ignored his dedication to his employers. “I had no idea Weselton took our trade severance this personally.” She said off-handedly, placing the ice pick down on one of the wooden benches, far out of his reach.   
The assassin flinched at her words. “How did you…?”  
“How did I know Weselton sent you?” Elsa smirked. “I didn’t, you just confirmed my suspicion.”  
The assassin closed his mouth and glared at her, angry at being tricked.   
Elsa let the silence hang for a moment before resuming her interrogation. “Why did they send you to kill me?”  
He scoffed. “Isn’t it obvious? To such a clever witch?”  
“I think this runs a little deeper than mere political revenge.” Elsa said, eyeing him carefully. She gestured towards the weapon on the seat next to her. “seems oddly specific to want to kill me with an ice pick.” The man shifted, his eyes glinting and darting briefly to the tantalizingly close weapon. “Tell me the truth.” Elsa demanded.  
His entire frame swelled up and hardened. “I would never forsake the sacrifices of my father by conversing with a being such as you!” The man roared. “I’ll die before I help you in any way!”  
Elsa didn’t bat an eyelash at his outburst. She slowly let the cold radiate from her body to fill the cell. The man scuttled away from her as far as the chains would allow but his eyes remained defiantly hard.   
“So you are afraid of me.” Elsa said, taking a single step closer. “Of what I can do.”  
The assassin’s eyes flickered from her to the weapon to the door in quick succession. “Weselton fears winter.” He finally said around his teeth. “Every child knows the story. Twenty-four years ago, a witch cursed our land, killing our crops and freezing our rivers. Everything stopped, for two whole years we suffered winter’s wrath.”   
Elsa recalled the Duke’s irrational and overwhelming fear of her abilities. A rush of excitement and dread ran through her. Her predecessor perhaps? It had to be. The last time Isen had been awake.  
The man was still speaking, his glare never wavering from Elsa. “Then finally, we discovered the cause, a young witch with the power to call upon ice and snow,” he paused then spit in her direction again. He missed. “…just like you. We begged her, we threatened her and even tortured her but still the storm raged on. She would not stop it. So we removed the cause. Only then did the winter cease.”  
His words sent both a strange chill and an overwhelming sense of déjà vu through Elsa. She clenched both her fists, keeping the ice inside as best she could through her rage and disgust. “So you murdered a child.” She clarified, her voice like ice.  
“To cease the slaughter of hundreds more!” the man defended, thrusting his chest forward as if he himself had committed the act and were damn proud of it. “And we would have done it a hundred times if necessary.”  
Elsa didn’t have a name for the emotion currently consuming her. It was some odd mixture of rage, fear, disgust and sorrow. “Monsters.” She spat at him through gritted teeth.  
The man’s tiny eyes narrowed even more. “You’re the monster, sorceress!” He shouted at her, his eyes glowing with hatred and conviction. Elsa could tell he had never wanted to kill her more than he did right now.  
“I am not a monster.” She said softly but in a voice that had quieted many angry politicians.   
It had no effect on him. “Tell that to the hundreds who died when the endless winter struck Weselton twenty-four years ago. Tell that to the children who grew up without parents, the parents who watched their children freeze to death. Tell that to my brother, my parents’ first born!”   
Elsa had to turn away as he said those words. Words from her nightmare. “That was not my fault. I was not even born.” She fought to keep her arms from wrapping tightly around herself. She had to stay strong. The cut on her side was burning again through the tight bandages.  
“But you carry the legacy and therefore the blame.” There was a smirk in his voice, she knew he could see her weakening. “You froze your kingdom as well. Your people have all suffered because of your sorcery. They all fear you.”  
Elsa rounded on him, her eyes flashing. “I ended the winter.” She said, in a careful, calm voice. “My people love and respect me as I love and respect them.”  
He sneered at her and snapped his chains against the ground. “If your winter storm had lasted much longer, soon enough those same people would turn on you too. Do you think even your most loyal would not hesitate to kill you if they knew it would save their children from freezing to death? Do you think it is not a thought in their heads now as they watch you walking free, flaunting your magic, reigning over them? Do you think that fear or loyalty will keep them in check for long?”   
Elsa had nothing to say in response to that. He had just named another of her nightmares. And a fear that chased her all though the day as she looked out over her people.   
She turned away. “We’re done here.” Her voice was thick and low.  
A dark chuckle came from the cell behind her, echoing eerily among the walls. “Not going to kill me? Coward. Some queen.”  
Elsa paused, fighting down the fury that threatened to blind her and impale him with an icicle. “I am not a killer.” She said, recalling how close she’d come to making that statement a lie. She picked up the ice pick from the bench. It felt too hot to hold but she closed her hand around the handle. “I consider life far more precious than anyone from your forsaken country obviously does. I will not kill you. Nor will I return you to Weselton.”  
She turned her head slightly, so that he could see the anger and fervor in her eyes as she delivered her sentence. “You will be banished. To the northern provinces. There, you will live and slave away in the ice and the cold for six years under a battalion of Arendelle guards and ice harvesters. Then you will be free…to do as you please. ”   
His chains smacked against the floor again. “I will still return to kill you!” He snarled happily.  
“Perhaps. But perhaps not.”  
He shuffled forwards slightly, his chains dragging with him. “You really think a few years in the cold will flatten my resolve?” He chuckled darkly again. “People don’t change, sorceress. You are merely a reincarnation of the monster before you. Death and destruction follows your kind. You’re a danger. A MURDERER!” He continued to shout and scream, descending into a deranged chant: “Monster! Monster!”  
Elsa left the cell, his shrieking voice and haunting laughter following her until the heavy wooden door slammed mercifully shut behind her.  
***  
The guardian and the spring host were seated in Elsa’s drawing room: Garret examined the ivory-inlaid chess set on the table while Scara hung upside-down off the couch, her long blonde hair trailing on the floor.  
“I thought a queen was always safe.”  
The spring host’s quiet statement broke Garret’s focus on the pieces and he blinked. “What?”  
Scara kicked her legs against the back of the couch. “I mean they live in these giant castles. Isn’t it like our temple? No one can get in? People protect her.”  
Garret shrugged. He had about as much experience with royals as she did. “We protected her.” He pointed out.  
“But we’re not always here.”  
“Elsa is very powerful.” Garret replied, picking up a pawn and spinning it on his palm. “And she knows how to take care of herself.”  
“But that still didn’t save her.”  
Garret could think of nothing to say to reassure the young girl.   
“The man that attacked Elsa.” Scara continued, sounding troubled, an emotion that she rarely displayed. “He got through so easily. And he looked so…angry.” Garret glanced at her and found the spring host’s eyes swimming in tears again. “What had Elsa ever done to him?” She asked.  
Garret placed the pawn back in its place, turning it to face the opposing army. “He was probably hired by someone who doesn’t like Elsa.” Garret turned around and was greeted with a stoic face looking at him from the wall. Curious, he took a step closer and examined the portrait of the late king.  
“Who could not like Elsa?” Scara mused. “Well, except Theo.”  
“Theo likes Elsa.” Garret said without thinking.  
The atmosphere in the room visibly brightened as Scara smiled. “I knew it!”   
Garret knew he shouldn’t get Scara’s hopes up about that, especially with the way Theo was currently dealing with her feelings. But he would tell Scara whatever he thought would make her happy. He would tell Theo whatever would help keep her sane.  
“Elsa is a queen.” Garret said, examining the medals on the painted man’s chest. “She has enemies, people scared of her powers most likely.”  
Scara shook her head in bewilderment. “He tried to poison her. To kill her.” She tilted her head upright so that she could look at him better. “Was he one of those evil men?”   
Garret nodded, all traces of a smile slipping off his face. “Yes Scara, you want to stay away from devious men like him.”  
Scara let her head hang backwards again. “Devious…like the people who took away my parents.”  
Garret said nothing. His fist was clenched so tightly he felt blood trickling down his palm where his fingers dug into flesh. He stared up at the portrait of a man he had never known and felt rage course through him.   
“Never trust men who kill for a living.” He whispered, unsure if Scara heard him or not.   
Silence returned and Garret continued to examine the portrait of Elsa’s father, his brief anger beginning to fade. Even though he hadn’t known the man, he felt like he understood him just by looking at this painting. He was calm and powerful and though his gaze in the painting was relaxed, he could feel the weight of expectation in it. This was a father who loved his children but hid it under high expectations.   
Garret had never known his parents. Being the Guardian, he had been separated from them at birth, destined to wander and train until he found the hosts. But he’d always wondered what it would be like to have a father.   
His thoughts returned to the moment back in the square. The moment when the Mother’s will had overcome his own and he’d nearly chopped a man’s head off in a blind fervor of protection. A terrible man but that didn’t make it any better. That man might have been a father. Perhaps he had a son back home. A child who would miss him just as Elsa missed her father and Garret wondered about his.  
“Scara?” She looked up at him. He was still gazing at the King but no longer really looking at him. “Thank you.” He said.  
Scara sat up straight, regarding him with confusion. “For what?”  
“For stopping me from killing him.”  
“Livet didn’t want to lose him, not yet.” Scara said it matter-of-factly but Garret had seen the tears in her eyes back in the square. She hadn’t wanted to see him kill. Not again.  
The door was suddenly thrown open, banging against the wall. Scara and Garret looked up, expecting the queen.  
But it wasn’t Elsa entering the room.  
Scara smiled brightly at the stranger. “Hello. I remember you.”  
“Nice sword.” Garret commented, gesturing at the weapon. “Well-made and well-maintained.”  
The woman before them tightened her grip on it. “Thank you.” She said stiffly. Her strawberry-blonde hair was tied neatly in two braids. A thick crop of freckles dusted her nose. She was regarding them the same way Garret imagined she would regard the assassin from earlier. She didn’t trust them, that much he could tell.  
“Have you studied it long?” Garret asked kindly, gesturing at her weapon again.   
He saw her loosen up but only slightly. “Only a few months.” She admitted. “But my instructor says I’m a natural.”  
“That’s great!” Scara said, standing up. “I wanted to learn some swordplay but Theo wouldn’t let me touch Garret’s broadsword…not after what happened last time I got my hands on a blade…”  
Garret placed a gentle hand on Scara’s shoulder to silence her. He saw the girl fighting to hold back a smile at Scara’s outburst.   
“You are the one who cares for the queen, yes?” He asked their visitor. He recognized her as the woman who had accompanied them into the castle with the unconscious queen. In all the confusion, Garret hadn’t had a chance to ask her name.  
The woman straightened up, all traces of a smile falling off her face. “Yes. That’s right.” She fingered her sword again and Garret noticed a shining bangle on her left wrist. “I protect her. I’m her sister, Princess Anna.”  
Garret felt his heart stop. “Princess…” So this was her. Elsa’s impossible sister.  
Next to him, Scara twitched uncomfortably and through the hand he still had on her shoulder, he felt her deflate slightly as if someone had sapped all the happy energy out of her. The two of them stood there, unmoving, unsure what to do.  
Princess Anna stared at them, her gaze unreadable. Garret wondered if she was waiting for them to bow or just trying to screw up courage to ask them something. She was older than Garret had expected her to be and not at all as he expected a princess to be. Then again, her sister was a rather unconventional queen so he supposed it wasn’t that much of a surprise.   
The princess was youthful and beautiful, with toned muscles in her arms and torso. There was a bruise on her left cheek and a healing cut under her chin. Her eyes were a beautiful teal color, a shade darker than Elsa’s but the exact same shape as the queen’s.   
Garret looked away. He couldn’t look into those eyes. Not without feeling like something was very wrong. Like there was something here he needed to fix. A scaled that needed to be balanced. The axe on his back suddenly felt very heavy.  
“Who are you?” The princess asked, her gaze shifting back and forth between the two.  
Scara was the one who answered. “Your sister hasn’t told you?” Garret heard the unease in Scara’s voice and knew she was feeling the same odd sense of imbalance he was feeling.   
The princess crossed her arms, glaring between them. “Why are you here? How do you know my sister?”  
Garret glanced at Scara, still unable to meet Anna’s gaze. “We…we are…”  
“We’re not here to hurt you or your sister.” Scara told Anna, reinforcing the words with a smile. “We just want her to be safe. To be protected.”  
Anna was silent for a moment. Scara’s answer seemed to have thrown her slightly. Her arms had loosened. “Are you the ones that took her away last summer?” She finally asked.  
Scara glanced at Garret for guidance but he had nothing to offer. He wasn’t sure what to do here. Why hadn’t Elsa told her sister about them?   
“Yes.” Scara finally replied.   
The change in Anna was immediate and apparent. “Why?” She asked through her teeth, her shoulders tensing and her fingers dancing along the handle of her blade.   
Scara took a step back, her shoulder trembling and Garret felt the change in the air, the thickening of the atmosphere as Scara’s unease manifested in Livet’s power. He could smell pollen in the air and out of the corner of his eye saw a potted plant in the corner twitch ever so slightly.   
Garret’s hand tightened on Scara’s shoulder reflexively as he tried to put his thoughts in order. It was his duty to keep the hosts safe and that meant keeping them from revealing their powers as much as possible to ordinary humans. But Anna was Elsa’s sister. She knew about these abilities. But did she know about the others? If she attacked them, what would he do? He’d protect Scara, that was a given but could he really hurt Anna? Would that fix anything?  
Thankfully, he was saved by making a decision by Elsa entering the room.  
As soon as she did, the heavy air in the room cleared instantly. “Elsa!” Scara was clearly overjoyed to see her new sister again. She leapt forward and swept Elsa up in a crushing embrace. The queen didn’t tense up under the touch but she did not hug Scara back. She only had eyes for her sister.   
“Anna, what are you doing here?” The queen asked as she gently pushed Scara off of her. Garret’s eyes narrowed. Something wasn’t right. Elsa looked troubled. Clearly she had been up to something since she had woken up from her attack. He saw the same dark circles under her eyes that plagued another one of his girls.   
“Getting answers.” The princess replied. “Elsa… who are these people?” Her eyes swept over to Garret who was now looking between Anna and Elsa uncomfortably.   
There was a moment of silence in which the heavy atmosphere of the room could not be attributed to the power of a season. Garret and Scara watched uneasily as the princess and queen stared each other down. Clearly there was something else going on here. Something they were not meant to witness.  
“Give us a moment please.” Elsa didn’t wait for a response from Garret and Scara before she pulled Anna out of the room and into the hallway, slamming the doors shut behind them.  
Garret turned back to the painting, breathing slowly to try to calm himself. The blind rage had almost overcome him again. He’d almost lashed out.  
Scara collapsed heavily back on the couch. “I thought she’d be younger.” She said in a tiny voice.  
Garret laughed with relief. “Yeah… me too.”  
“I…I thought I was going to...” Scara was crying softly, her fists closed tightly. The plant in the corner had overgrown, bursting out of its pot and sprawling silently on the floor.  
Garret left the painting and knelt in front of the spring host. She looked up at him, helpless. “I would have stopped you.” Garret told her, his voice shaking too.   
Scara nodded. “I know but…this…this feeling.” She wrapped her arms around herself and took a deep breath. “Livet was clenching all my muscles, she was going to lose control if Anna drew that sword…” Her eyes were wide, she had turned white. She’d almost lost control and it terrified her. Livet had asserted her dominance, something the spring spirit rarely did. But when she did, Scara fell apart. Her control was already fragile enough, Livet taking over only made it worse.  
Garret gently drew Scara into a hug, leaning her head on his shoulder. Tiny vines tugged at his tunic but the Mother’s Grace kept them from tightening.  
Scara buried her face in his shoulder. “Why Garret?” She asked him as he stroked her hair. “Why is she tipping the balance? What do they want us to do to fix it?”  
Garret wished he had answers for her. But he didn’t. He was but their protector, he didn’t have answers to the Mother’s mysteries.  
The door opened once more and Garret caught the end of Elsa’s statement. “…Anna please. Please trust me when I say that this is important.” He tilted his head to the side, trying to catch more. Was Elsa pleading?  
Whatever response the princess might have had was cut off by the doors slamming shut behind Elsa as she entered the room.  
Garret offered Elsa a smile. “So that’s your sister.” He said conversationally, patting Scara gently as he stood up.  
“I don’t want to talk about her.” Elsa snapped, ice crackling at her palm. The temperature in the room dropped several degrees and ice began to form around the fireplace. Scara let out a tiny hiccup and Elsa flinched at the sound. Immediately, the room began to warm, the ice started to drip. Garret was impressed. Even now, under clear emotional stress, Elsa had incredible control.   
The queen took several deep breaths and folded her hands. “Garret, about earlier…” She said in a very controlled voice. “thanks.”  
Garret felt a smile tugging at his lips. He waited until Elsa looked at him to answer. “No need to thank me. I’d never let anything happen to my girls.”   
Elsa smiled back but he could still see the worry behind it.  
Scara stepped forward again and offered Elsa another hug, this one more subdued than the last.  
“Livet was afraid we were going to lose you.” She told the queen, her voice still thick with tears. “She gave me her most powerful cure so that I could draw out the poison.”  
Elsa nodded, brushing a loose strand of platinum hair behind her ear. She seemed very distracted.   
“What are you two doing here?” She asked.  
Scara answered before Garret could. “We are ready to go after Autumn.” She said, her voice unusually subdued. “We’ve come to take you to the temple for final preparations.”  
Ice shot along the edges of the mantle as Elsa panicked. “I can’t leave now!” She exclaimed, looking from Scara to Garret. “We’re barely out of financial disaster, my sister just got married, I have meetings with suitors and I was just attacked!” She rubbed her hands together as if trying to warm them but fractals of ice were dripping from between them at the action. “This is the worst possible time I could leave.”  
“Elsa…” Garret began, wondering if this was the best way to word his response. “this is important.”  
He saw her glance up over his shoulder, where he knew the portrait of the former king hung. “So is my kingdom.” Elsa said, her eyes not leaving the painting.  
It appeared Garret had been right about the king. “We have to go now.” He told the queen sternly. “Autumn has been on the loose for two weeks, we cant afford any more delays. She could have killed everything in her homeland. And even though her power will be strong at this time of year, we have you.”  
Elsa laughed humorlessly and looked him in the eye. “What difference will I make without Isen?” She asked, her voice laced with a level a self-doubt Garret hadn’t even suspected she possessed.   
“I thought you had more faith in yourself.” He said. “We need the spirit of winter certainly but we will need her ice first.” He shrugged. “And who knows, maybe being in proximity to Død will provide the kick Isen needs to wake up.”  
Elsa still looked torn. “This will be good.” Garret told her, placing a gentle hand on her shoulder. Elsa searched his face with the same expression she had observed the painting behind him with. Garret found the weight of it both inspiring and terrifying. “Finally you’ll all be together again. Maybe then this whole imbalance will work itself out. We just need to get Død home.”  
“Død is lost…” Scara said. Both Garret and Elsa glanced at her. She was sitting on the couch again, her eyes wide and distant, a dreamy look on her face. “She’s all alone and frightened…” The air in the room thickened again, even Elsa tensed up at the atmosphere.  
Garret left Elsa’s side and knelt in front of the girl again. “Scara…stop. You don’t need to do that.”  
“It will help calm her.” Scara said in a strong voice. Her gaze had hardened. The plant in the corner was growing again and the wood on the couch was becoming riddled with cracks. “Livet wants to help her sister…”  
Garret ran a hand along Scara’s arm, trying to get her to look at him. She wouldn’t. “You cant reach her. It will only drive you insane. Remember what Theo said.”  
Scara’s fingers tightened on the cushion under her and tiny plants began to sprout from every piece of wood in the room. “Theo is wrong. I have to try…Autumn is crying…” Her eyes began to flash gold and a strong breeze swept through the room, toppling over the chess pieces.  
“Scara, no!” Garret lashed out, his protective side taking over. A quick jab to Scara’s left shoulder and a tug of her left earlobe knocked the host unconscious. All the plants around them shrank and crumbled to bits as her eyes closed and she went limp. Garret caught Scara as she fell and laid her flat on the couch. He brushed a stray strand of blonde from her face. I’m sorry, Scar…  
“What’s going on?” Elsa asked, her voice shaking. “What’s wrong with her?”  
“Livet and Død are twin spirits.” Garret explained as he stood up. “Half of a whole. They feel each other’s emotions, share each other’s pain.”  
Elsa stepped closer and gazed down at Scara’s prone form. “So she’s been like this all this time?”  
Garret shook his head. “Only when she actively reaches out. The rest of the time, Livet protects her from the worst of it.”   
Elsa knelt and gently touched Scara’s forehead. Garret saw small, cooling particles of ice leaking from her fingers to soothe the spring host’s fevered face. “Why did you knock her out then?” Elsa asked him.  
“Livet wasn’t protecting her.”  
They were silent for a moment until Scara shifted slightly and murmured. Her face relaxed and her eyes began to flutter.  
“Where’s Theo?” Elsa asked suddenly. He’d wondered when she’d ask that.  
“Still at the temple, making some final calculations with Goren.” Garret replied. “She’ll meet us at the border. We asked her if she wanted to come but she was very adamant that she not come near Arendelle.”  
Elsa’s eyes widened. “Why?” She asked, standing up so she was level with the Guardian.  
Garret shrugged. “Who knows?” He was lying. But he doubted Elsa could tell.  
The queen looked away, biting her lip. She was staring into the fireplace, watching the flames lick at charred logs. Scara shifted again and slowly began to wake from her trace.  
“So.” Garret said quietly, barely softer than the crackle of the flames. “Are you ready, Elsa?”  
***  
Unbelievable.   
Her sword hidden behind the curtain in the corner, Anna ripped open the file Kai had delivered and tried very hard not to tear the documents to pieces. As she examined the papers, Anna had to wonder if the poison that had almost killed Elsa or just the trauma of being attacked had turned Elsa into some kind of secretive monster with poor judgment. Why else would she make her meet with Prince Christian about trades?  
Anna smiled as pleasantly as she could at the prince as he entered the conference room where they were meeting. The months of his constant presence still had not dampened Anna’s hatred of the foreign prince, nor her suspicion of his motives. No amount of polite interactions or uneventful Informers’ reports could convince her otherwise. But she had gotten better at hiding her distain. Her stomach was in knots and Anna briefly wondered if it was nerves or if the baby didn’t like Southern Isles princes either.   
So no, Anna was in no way pleased about this meeting. It was also keeping Anna from eavesdropping on whatever was happening in the drawing room. She hadn’t even had a chance to get a message to Dagrun, telling him to listen in on the talk.  
Anna sat down, clearing her throat. “Well, Prince Christian, shall we begin?”  
He nodded and opened his papers, his silence throwing Anna for a loop. She’d expected him to demand a meeting with the queen or to inquire how she was in that annoyingly polite voice he had. Not that she was complaining, his silence was much appreciated.  
“Alright, so I know Elsa wanted me to ask about the numbers regarding our ice-basalt trades, especially now as we have a great surplus…”  
“I’m sure whatever deal the queen had in mind would be fine.” Prince Christian interrupted, waving a hand. Anna paused. Something wasn’t right here. He’d just interrupted her, something she’d never known him to do. His court manners were more polished than Elsa’s and they usually reflected Anna’s own inadequacies with political affairs right back in her face. On top of that, he’d been asking for this meeting for months. Anna highly doubted it was just to say yes to their every demand.  
“Great. I’m sure Elsa will be thrilled.” Anna shifted papers. “Let’s move on…”  
Anna continued the discussion for several minutes but quickly realized her intuition had been correct. Something was off with the prince today.   
“Is there something wrong, Prince Christian?” She asked as the prince spaced out for the third time in ten minutes.   
Christian shook himself but it didn’t seem to help. “I’m very sorry princess.” He apologized. “Thank you for taking this time for me but I’m afraid we will have to reschedule. I cannot discuss this right now.”  
The prince looked very disoriented and very upset. Anna could see where his beard was disheveled from him running his fingers through it. His eyes darted from her to the table and back.  
Anna sighed. “That’s alright, I’m really not in the mood to discuss trades either.” She stood up. “A man from Weselton just tried to kill Elsa.”  
Immediately the prince’s whole manner changed. “Is she alright?” He demanded, leaning aggressively forward over the table.  
Anna nodded, shocked at the reaction. “She’s fine, thankfully. The assassin is locked in our dungeon until we can send him off for punishment.”  
Christian settled back in his seat, distant once more but with a darkness about him that reminded Anna a little too much of Hans.  
“Is everything alright?” She asked.  
“My father has taken ill.” Christian finally said. “Prince Anderson, my eldest brother has assumed the throne as Acting Reagent.”  
Anna was about to attempt to offer her condolences but Christian was gathering up his papers, still talking. “I’m afraid my brother’s goals are not quite the same as my father’s were. I will have to discuss with him before we proceed in our discussions.” He stood stiffly and inclined his head in her direction. “Thank you princess but I must wish you good day.”  
“Prince Christian.” He paused as Anna called out. Anna swallowed hard, all thoughts of distain and anger fading from her voice.  
“I…I hope your father recovers.”  
The prince said nothing but he nodded stiffly in thanks. He left the room, the door slamming behind him.  
Anna stood and walked to the window, relieved that she’d gotten lucky like that. They hadn’t been talking for very long. Maybe she could still get Dagrun to listen in on Elsa’s discussion.   
As she reached behind the curtain for her sword however, Anna caught sight of her sister outside. She was leaving the castle. With them.  
Anna pressed her face against the window, watching in disbelief as Elsa voluntarily left the grounds with the strangers, the young blonde one holding her hand. Elsa was still wearing that stupid dress, the black one that she seemed to have picked up when she’d disappeared last. She didn’t look back.  
Anna pulled herself away from the window and buckled her sword back in place. When she’d demanded that Elsa tell her who those visitors were, the queen had only pushed her towards the conference room, telling Anna nothing except that they were here on business with her and Elsa would speak to them alone.   
Anna could tell Elsa was not pleased that she had ambushed the visitors in the conference room so she did not push her luck. The weight of their previous conversation, the debate that had raged silently between them still hung heavily in their interaction. Anna wondered if that was why Elsa looked so upset. Either that or her conversation with the assassin hadn’t gone well. Anna was already making plans for the man who’d tried to kill her sister and they involved a gag and Kristoff’s spare banjo. No one tried to kill her sister without receiving proper punishment from Arendelle’s princess.   
But those plans might have to be put on hold. Elsa was keeping secrets from Anna again, something she’d thought they had overcome these past few months. Anna had been patient with this secret, thinking it was too traumatic for her sister to tell but her patience had run out. It was time for answers.  
Anna left the conference room, mentally planning the quickest route to the castle gates. If Elsa still would not tell her, even now when her life was in danger…  
Her hand tightened reassuringly on her sword. Anna had ways of gathering information. She would find out what was happening. Even if it killed her.   
“Anna!” She turned a corner and suddenly found herself being crushed in the embrace of her husband. Even though he had interrupted her vital mission, Anna couldn’t help hugging him back.  
“Anna, I heard what happened, is Elsa alright?” Kristoff pulled away from her, his face contorted in anger. “Where’s that assassin, I’m going to make him wish he’d never even heard of Arendelle!”  
Anna gently stroked his arm, trying to get the murderous fire to simmer down. Later they could take those feelings out on the assassin together. “She’s fine, Kristoff.” She assured him. Briefly Anna told him about the assassination attempt and the two strangers who had helped Elsa.  
“…and now she just left with them!”  
Kristoff seemed puzzled. “Really? Why?”  
“Well that’s what I’m going to find out.” She held up a hand before he could say anything. “I need your help, Kristoff. Please.”  
As she gripped his arm, she caught sight of the bangle on her wrist again. It winked at her demandingly, accusingly, accompanied by a sharp reprimand in Elsa’s voice. She took a deep breath and held his hand. Their bangles grew to bind together.  
“But first, there’s something I need to tell you…”  
***  
The trio left as twilight blanketed the castle. Elsa glanced back at the high gates as Garret led her and Scara towards the hills alongside the western edge of the fjord. They were to wait for nightfall then Elsa would craft them an ice platform to carry them westward to the temple. Scara would provide the wind.   
The spring host had recovered from her episode in the drawing room and was back to her perky, if somewhat subdued self.  
The trio reached a ridge on the outskirts of Arendelle’s capitol just as the tip of the sun met the horizon. Turning back to see the castle on the fjord, the home that had once been a prison, the throne she had proudly inherited from her father, Elsa found she could not take another step.  
She stopped walking and stared down at her kingdom, recalling her flight several months ago, when she’d thought she was leaving for good. But she had returned, despite all circumstances. Then when the others had taken her away, saying she’d never return. But she had.  
For some reason, she felt that if she left this time, she would never see her kingdom again.  
Garret looked back as he realized Elsa had stopped following them. Scara skipped back to Elsa’s side and slid her hand into the queen’s again.   
“Don’t worry.” The spring host said. “Your kingdom is in good hands. Anna will be fine.”  
Garret placed a comforting hand on her arm. “Hopefully this will take no longer than a week.” He said, squeezing her arm reassuringly. “Then everything will be back to normal.”  
Elsa nodded, pursing her lips and trying to believe them. She wanted desperately to believe them. One week. Just one week. But of course, that week would be spent with…  
“At least as normal as it can be.”  
As one, the queen, the host and the guardian spun to the voice.  
A woman stood quietly under the shadow of an oak tree, completely still except for where the wind set her short hair billowing out like smoke…  
“Theo!” Scara jumped up and threw herself at the summer host. Theo hugged her briefly, lifting the younger girl into the air, then set her down.  
Garret was looking at Theo questioningly. “I thought you were meeting us at the border?” He said.  
The summer host shrugged. “I got impatient.” Scara had an arm around Theo’s waist, a distant smile on her face like she was lost in her own world.  
Theo didn’t even look at Elsa. She ignored her like she didn’t exist.  
“Still doesn’t explain why you came all the way here.” Garret pressed, tucking one hand into his tunic pocket and regarding Theo with mild suspicion.   
“I came straight here.” Theo said, sounding tired but determined. “Goren got a definite lock. We have a location.”  
Immediately, the distant smile melted off of Scara’s face. “Where?” She asked, her voice taking on a desperate tone Elsa had never heard from her before.  
Theo noticed the change too and a flicker of concern crossed her features. “South of here.” Theo told Scara. “A small island of the coast of Belmore. We can be there by tomorrow’s sunset if we leave from here immediately.”  
Everyone, even Scara was silent. Elsa suddenly realized they were all waiting for her to say something. She looked up and immediately wished she hadn’t. Theo was looking at her.   
The confusion of their last encounter, a kiss that perhaps should have remained hypothetical hung heavily in the air between them, twisting and falling like trapped steam.   
Elsa knew the dark shadows under her eyes painted there by her nightmares were glaringly noticeable. Theo looked even worse than she did two weeks ago.  
Elsa could already tell this trip to retrieve Autumn would be consumed with the two of them trying not to discuss what had happened two weeks ago in her room. Trying not to snap at each other. Trying not to make the nightmares real.   
Garret looked between the two of them, his eyes observing small hints and subtle signs between the two. But when he turned to Elsa, all he said was: “Let’s go.”


	11. The Journey

It was freezing. So cold, it was surprising that the stairs underfoot were not coated in ice with how damp these walls seemed. Every footstep echoed deafeningly around the stone with a wet smack. The darkness embraced the cloaked figure, carrying them past dozing guards and locked doors alike until the destination was reached.   
The man behind the bars raised his head as the visitor approached the cell. He smirked and stepped closer to the door, rattling his chains as they pulled taught.   
“Ah, two visitors in one day…I guess I’m finally worthwhile.”  
The visitor said nothing. A stolen key was produced and softly, the wooden door creaked open. The cloaked figure stepped inside, face hidden by their hood.   
The assassin grinned, showing his teeth at his visitor. “Well? Don’t be shy. Show your face.”  
Slowly Prince Christian raised his head, letting the dim light illuminate his features. The assassin’s lips slowly closed around his teeth.  
“Do you know who I am?” the prince asked, not lowering his hood. His low drawl echoed softly around the stone walls.  
The mercenary raised his eyebrows. “Of course.” He took a seat on the stone bench, keeping his chained hands in his lap. “I wont bother to ask if you know me. You nobles never do.” He laughed. “Funny, it works one way but never the other?”  
“Regardless, you know the horrors I will unleash upon you if you do not answer me honestly when I question you.”  
“Question away.” The assassin replied smoothly, unmoved by the prince’s threat.  
“Who sent you?” Christian asked.  
“My employer.”  
Christian crossed the room in two angry strides. The man didn’t even flinch as the prince grabbed him by the collar and threw him off the bench. “Do not play games with me, boy.” The prince spat.   
The assassin slowly sat up and pulled himself back onto the bench before replying. “Games are for children, I work in strategy.” He crossed his legs and glared tauntingly. “Your move.”  
Christian clenched his fist tightly to keep himself from lashing out again. “Who is your employer?” He asked through his teeth.  
“Someone who wants the queen dead, are you sure you’re nobility?” The chained man tutted, rattling his chains. “I thought your type prided yourself on your education. That which put you above us ‘common folk’.”  
Christian considered slapping him but got himself under control enough to only take another menacing step forward. “You and I both know Weselton didn’t send you here.” He said quietly, so much so that the assassin had to lean in to hear him.  
“Oh really?” The man sat back. “Am I not ‘weasel’ly enough to represent my homeland?”  
“No, you’re too well-trained.”  
The man’s face twisted into a mocking pout. “I take that as an insult.” He shook his chains meaningfully. “Especially since my skills were just proven completely ineffective.”  
Christian leaned in even closer, his breath ghosting in the cold air around them. “I’ve had a lot of time on my hands here to study, to gather information. And since the loss of trade with Arendelle, your country’s economy is barely holding together. There is no money to hire an assassin, especially not one as highly-ranked and specifically trained as you.”  
The assassin said nothing. It appeared the prince had finally made a statement he had no smart comeback to. Silence fell for a moment, broken only by the drip of water and the wind outside.   
“You and I both know Weselton is too far south to bother stocking ice picks.” Christian continued. “Let alone train anyone to use them as weapons.”   
The assassin sighed dramatically. “Ever hear of poetic justice?” He slouched back in his seat, smug. “It’s something my employer holds very dear.”  
“I know my brother hired you.” Christian growled.  
“So why ask? Or did you want to know which one? You seem to have a lot, honestly I don’t know how your parents kept track…”  
“You know perfectly well which one I am referring to.” Christian interrupted, his chest clenching as painfully as his teeth were.  
The assassin shrugged noncommittally. “So we’re on the same page then.”  
“Not quite.” The man glanced up at the prince in mild confusion, one eyebrow raised. “Why did my brother hire you?” Christian asked.  
“I’d think the reason would be fairly obvious. My occupation is hardly open to interpretation.”   
The man grunted as the prince grabbed him by the collar and shoved him hard against the freezing wall of the cell. “No harm must come to the Queen.” Christian murmured in his ear, his voice low and chilling. His other hand slowly tightened around the prisoner’s neck. “Not until after she has served her purpose. My brother knows that. So why did he send you?”  
The man shrugged as best he could. “Hell if I know.” He gasped out around the hand at his throat. “He saw I could not refuse, no matter the price. The chance to take out a winter witch?” His eyes hardened despite the lack of air. “I would have done the job for free.”  
Christian loosened his grip ever so slightly. “Why is that?”   
The assassin twisted, trying to loosen the hold more. “Surely you’ve heard of Weselton’s run-in with her kind?” He cackled humorlessly. “The Endless Winter!”  
Abruptly, the prince released him, sending him crashing back onto the bench ungracefully. “Her…kind?”  
The man was quiet for a moment, rubbing his assaulted throat. “There was a child.” He said. “Many years ago, a child who could summon ice and snow, just as Arendelle’s filthy queen can. She cursed our land with the winter, so we killed her.”  
“How long ago?”  
“Twenty four years ago.”  
Christian stumbled backwards, doing the math frantically in his head. “And this child…her powers…they were…similar to Queen Elsa’s?”  
The prisoner sat up. “Similar?” He spat violently on the ground between Christian’s boots. “They were identical.”   
Christian leaned heavily against the cold stone wall, his mind racing. “Another…just before Elsa’s time…” There was no other explanation, everything fit too perfectly. “Then our plan will work…” he might still be able to pull this off, even with his time quickly running out. “there can be no refuting this…Elsa is one of a group. One of the cycle…a reincarnation of the Ancient Ones…There must be others…and she will lead us right too them!” He let out a laugh of exhilaration. For the first time since he’d landed here, Christian had a clear path in mind to his goal and a beacon to light the way.   
“It would be better to just kill her.” The assassin deadpanned, snapping the prince out of his jubilant plotting. “Witches are dangerous and not easily tamed. We had our best men handle the child and the storms only got worse.”   
Silence fell as Christian pondered his next move. He would have to act carefully from here on out. “Who else would you tell of this? Of the dangers of the ice witch who threatened Weselton?”  
The chained man’s eyes snapped up to his. “Everyone.” He proclaimed. “The world needs to know that these witches exist. That her kind needs to be eliminated.”  
Those words sealed his fate in Christian’s eyes. “And this is where our brief partnership will end.” His hand clenched around the hilt of his sword. “I cannot have you spreading word of these others…coercing others into hunting them.”  
The prisoner raised an eyebrow. “No? So what are you going to do?”  
“Silence you.”  
The words echoed around the tiny space.   
The man scoffed. “You’re no killer. I can see it in your eyes.” He was utterly confident in his analysis. Unafraid.  
Christian didn’t move, he didn’t let a single emotion show on his face. “That’s where you’re wrong. Everyone has something they will kill for.” He wrapped his hand firmly around the handle of his sword. “And now, thanks to you…I am one step closer to the ultimate prize…”  
His blade swung free with an endless, echoing ring.   
“Thank you…for your…sacrifice.”  
***  
“Stop.”  
Everyone froze in their tracks, going still and silent.  
“What…” Theo started to ask but Garret held up a hand, silencing her. He took several steps forward, making no sound on the dead leaves underfoot. He crouched and ran a hand gently over the forest floor as if trying to feel for something very faint. The girls all watched him anxiously.   
After a moment, the Guardian slowly rose and loosened his axe. “Someone’s following us.”   
Theo reacted instantly, grabbing Scara and pushing her behind Garret, taking up a position with her back to the Guardian so that the spring host was between them. Elsa was left alone off to the side.   
Theo turned her head slowly, sparks dancing at her fingertips as she scanned the trees around them.  
“Where?”  
“A little ways behind us.” Garret replied, axe now in hand. “They wont have caught up to us yet. We have maybe a few minutes before they are close enough to hear us.”  
Elsa couldn’t even begin to fathom how he had figured all that out from just observing the ground. Perhaps Guardians had a few special talents of their own.  
She took a few steps closer to the group, unsure where she fit into their little defense formation. “So what should we do?” She asked taking up a position on Garret’s left. Her hands itched with unformed ice.  
Garret thought for a moment. “I’d prefer not to attack them…”   
Theo fell into a fighting crouch. “I’m sure we could handle them.” she said, flames twitching at her palm.  
“That’s not what I’m afraid of.” Garret replied drily.  
Elsa looked around, trying to think of a plan. They were still in the woods to the west of Arendelle, making their way around the fjord on foot until it was dark enough for them to cross the water without being seen. “It’s nearly nightfall,” Elsa observed. “we should stop them now if we want to get away…”   
“Or we can keep going by air and lose them entirely.” Theo interrupted, clenching her fist but still refusing to look at Elsa. Elsa stiffened, ice forming at her fingertips.  
“I was just almost assassinated by a madman who hates winter’s hosts,” Elsa snapped, her temper flaring immediately at the summer host’s continued ignoring of her. “I prefer not to take chances.”  
Theo seemed startled at the news but made no comment. Her neck snapped around and she stared at Elsa with an expression somewhere between fear and hurt. Elsa felt her anger drain away and regret for snapping at her so suddenly. Why did that keep happening between them? The anger followed immediately by this quiet anticipation of some kind of deeper understanding. It was driving her mad.   
“There’s still too much light. If we start flying now, we might not be able to escape the canopy without being seen.” Garret said, pulling Elsa out of the moment. “We’d have to stall them somehow.”  
Elsa turned back to Garret, forcing herself to ignore Theo. “I’ll backtrack a bit and trap them in ice.” She said. “Then we can be on our way and long gone before they thaw out enough to follow us.”  
Garret nodded, smiling. “Impressive. I think that should work.”  
“I’m going with you.”  
Elsa turned back to Theo at these words and bit her tongue to keep herself from snapping again. “I am more than capable of handling them myself.” She said in a level voice.  
Apparently this was the wrong approach because Theo’s temper flared in her eyes. “Says her Royal Highness who was just almost done in by a man with a knife.” She practically spat. Smoke curled from her palm.  
“It was an ice pick actually.” Elsa replied coolly.  
“Enough!” Scara hissed, startling them both to silence. She was clutching her head, the flower in her hair opening and closing slowly, mechanically. “They’re getting closer. Elsa, go. Theo, follow her if you must but stay out of sight.”  
Elsa and Theo regarded each other silently for a moment then Elsa turned and began backtracking. She heard Theo following her but keeping her distance, remaining out of sight.  
Elsa ducked into the trees, moving along as silently as possible as she followed the path they had just come along. She felt more than she heard Theo following a dozen steps or so behind her. Being alone with Theo nearby had Elsa’s heart churning in nerves and fear. Every nerve in her body was attuned to the presence behind her, snapping and fraying as she anticipated Theo watching her every move. She felt like she should talk to her. Now they could finally discuss…what had happened. She contemplated turning around but couldn’t. She didn’t know how to begin that conversation. Plus, if they started shouting at each other, it effectively ruined any chance they had of sneaking up on their pursuers.   
A twig snapped and Elsa heard the quiet murmur of voices in the trees up ahead. Immediately she stilled and called her ice to her fingers, turning to get Theo’s attention. Two dozen feet behind her, Theo caught her eye and gestured her to step behind a tree. Elsa hid herself, ice crackling in her palm, listening to the footsteps coming closer…closer…  
When Theo gave a nod, Elsa stuck out her hand and let loose her ice.   
The forest floor iced over, ice shooting in all directions. Their pursuers gave cries of surprise as Elsa blindly and effortlessly guided the ice to freeze them in place. Threatening spikes rose from the ground. Then she stepped out, her palms glowing, ready to face whoever dared to…  
“Hi Elsa!”  
She nearly screamed in surprise. Thankfully, she managed to tone it down to an incredulous: “Olaf?!”  
The snowman’s head was spinning on the ice on the forest floor, his body impaled against a tree by an icicle several feet away. Nevertheless, he looked positively overjoyed to see Elsa. The one stick arm still attached to his body gave a cheery wave.   
“What are you…?” But then it hit Elsa. There was only one reason why Olaf would be following her. And that reason was currently frozen to the tree next to his.  
“Anna…”  
Her stubborn sister tugged vainly at the hands attached to the tree behind her by the ice cuffs. “Hey.” She said flatly. Several icicles were pointed at her, three of them a bit too closely for Elsa’s liking.  
She rushed forward, running her hands over Anna’s face. “I could’ve killed you, Anna!” She said, thankfully finding no injuries. She ran her thumbs over Anna’s cheeks anyway.  
Anna pulled her face back slightly, breaking Elsa’s touch. “But you didn’t, I’m fine. Think you could let me down now?”  
Normally, that would have been the first thing Elsa would do. In fact, normally, she would have already done it. But this was not a normal circumstance. Ignoring her sister’s request, Elsa glanced around. Sven was several feet next to her, tossing his head and nervously pawing the ice on the ground. Strapped to his back was a small pack of supplies and a saddle. When he saw Elsa however, he sprang to attention, tongue lolling out of his mouth and bounded up to her, rubbing her affectionately with his nose.   
Elsa petted him, gently pushing him away from her so she could focus on her disobedient sister. Anna herself was dressed in riding breeches and a loose tunic, probably one of Kristoff’s. Her sword was strapped to her waist and her husband’s cap was on her head.   
“You were spying on me.” Elsa said, unable to keep the icy anger from her voice. She took a slow breath as a biting wind whipped briefly around her. “You just blindly followed me from Arendelle into the wilderness again.” She could not keep the bitter disappointment from her voice.  
Olaf, by this point having successfully taken every part of him that was not impaled apart and haphazardly rebuilt himself was trying to pull his impaled midsection from Elsa’s icicle. His head was shouting instructions and encouragement.  
“That’s it! And one, two…heave! Okay…okay just put yourself back together and try again…”  
“I brought my sword, and Olaf and Sven.” Anna defended herself. She shifted against her restraints but they did not give. She did not have the luxury of escape Olaf did. “I came prepared this time.”  
“You shouldn’t have come at all.” Elsa didn’t recognize her own voice as it growled from her throat.  
Anna bristled immediately. “Yes I should!” She shouted, her voice cracking slightly. “I’m your sister, Elsa! Do you really think I’ll ever stop coming after you when you run away?”  
Elsa clenched her fists. “You’re also pregnant.” She pointed out.  
Anna blushed crimson under the hat. “Only by a few weeks!”  
“Have you told your husband yet?”  
“As a matter of fact, I have.”  
“And where is he?”  
“Back in Arendelle, keeping an eye on things.”  
Elsa paused momentarily at this revelation. “By himself?” She couldn’t see Kristoff willingly agreeing to such an arrangement.  
Olaf’s body slid off the end of the icicle and began to roll away. His head rolled right into its path and ended up embedded in his stomach. The rest of him limped over, trying to make sense of the jagged mess of snow he had become.  
Anna was looking at Elsa suspiciously. “Don’t you trust him?”  
“Of course I do but that’s not the point.” Dimly, Elsa was aware that Theo had not come out of hiding. She might still be among the trees, watching this exchange. She could probably hear this entire conversation. The thought made Elsa wish she sounded less like a politician, less like a parent scolding a child. She struggled to put that out of her mind and regain the train of her argument. “The point…the point is that Arendelle is your responsibility. You are needed there.”  
Anna glared at her, her eyes narrowed. Elsa wished she would stop doing that. It hurt too much. “First of all, it’s technically your responsibility. And you just left without warning. Again.”  
Elsa closed her eyes, as if that could somehow keep the truth of Anna’s words from piercing her. “Secondly,” Anna continued. “Arendelle is in more than just Kristoff’s hands. The Informers will keep an eye on things.”  
Elsa opened her eyes again. “I’m not sure that’s best, Anna.” She said softly but in no way gently.   
Anna lifted her chin. “I disagree.”  
“They are children.”  
“Children, who have already successfully helped us satisfy the citizens and prevent an attempt on your life.” Anna reminded her, just a hint of pride in her words.   
“They were spying on me.”  
“They saved your life, I’m not going to apologize for that!” She struggled again and her sword tapped against the trunk behind her. “You’ve never liked them!”  
“I’ve never been comfortable with them.” Elsa replied, crossing her arms defensively. “The only reason I agreed to let you continue to keep them working was because I was suspicious of Prince Christian. It seemed wrong to spy on our people that way. And you using them to spy on me was unnecessary.”  
Anna stopped fighting the ice and fixed Elsa with a gaze that Elsa found she could not figure out. “You are my responsibility. I need to make sure you’re okay.”  
The queen stiffened. “I’m fine.”  
“I know when you’re lying, Elsa.”   
Elsa said nothing, her jaw clenched so tightly she was sure Anna could tell. Olaf had successfully liberated his face with a little help from a reindeer trying to catch falling snowflakes from his flurry.   
“You really expected me to just sit there while you ran away again?” Anna asked, her voice softening. “I thought you were done running Elsa. I thought…I thought you’d never leave me alone again.”  
Her arms snaked around her middle, hugging herself tightly as a familiar pain returned. “I’m not running away, Anna. I’ll just be gone for a few days. Then I’ll come home and I’ll never leave without telling you again.”  
“But why?” Anna pleaded, conveniently not mentioning that that was precisely what Elsa had promised last time. “Why cant you tell me now? Where are you going? Who are those people?”  
Elsa looked at her sister, at the one person she could never hurt. Anna looked back at her with wide, pleading eyes. She just wanted her big sister. She just wanted to know everything was okay, that it would be okay forever.   
Elsa knew at that moment she had to make a choice. If she told Anna, she could never be just Elsa again. Never just that big sister. There would always be that gulf between them of the sister with the spirit and the sister without. Anna would never look at her the same. Theo was listening. For some reason, that knowledge gave Elsa a chilling feeling in her lower gut. If she told Anna, Anna would be in danger. She would be dragged into this life of spirits and goddesses and ancient secrets all to keep Elsa from facing it alone. She would insist upon meeting the others, joining their fight. Sacrificing herself for her big sister. The way she always had.   
Elsa was not that selfish.  
Elsa closed her eyes, unable to see the look on her sister’s face as she made her choice. The only choice, really. “I’m the queen, Anna.” She said in a flat voice, completely devoid of emotion. “I don’t have to tell you everything.”  
“You can at least trust me!” Even without looking at Anna, Elsa could feel the hurt on her face in those words.   
She wrapped her arms around herself. “Like how I trusted you with the Informers and still you used them to spy on me?” She asked quietly.  
“They saved your life!” Anna protested but the impact was dulled somewhat by the guilty quiver in her voice.  
Elsa smiled but it did not reach her eyes. It did not make her feel any better. “That ice will melt in an hour. By then, we’ll be too far gone to track. So when you are free, you’d better jump on Sven and all of you,” she said with a pointed look at Olaf as he turned to face her, finally put back together, his arms outstretched for a hug. “head straight back to Arendelle.”  
Olaf’s arms drooped slightly and he cocked his head to the side. Even Sven let out a sad-sounding groan.  
“I’m not leaving you out here alone with them.” Anna said stubbornly, her voice thick with tears.   
Elsa risked a glance back. She wished she hadn’t. “Yes, you are.” Anna’s face, broken by the abandonment, her eyes swimming in tears plastered itself to Elsa’s heart. That look would never leave her for as long as she lived.   
Resigned to that burden, Elsa left her sister behind, frozen to the tree and walked back through the forest. Anna did not call after her.  
“How’d it go?” Garret asked as she made it back to their rendezvous point.   
Elsa shook her head to keep the tears from falling. “It was my sister.” She said by way of explanation. Her arms tightened around her middle.  
“Oh? How is she?” Scara asked brightly as if they were discussing the matter over tea.   
Elsa didn’t respond but ice began to creep up the trunk of a nearby tree, cracking the bark and snapping lower branches clean off. She took a few deep breaths, trying to calm herself down.  
Garret observed this and stepped forward placing a gentle hand on Elsa’s shoulder. “Why would she be following us?” He asked.   
“She…” Elsa swallowed hard and the ice stopped moving. “I haven’t told her the truth. About you. And about me.”  
To her surprise, Garret clapped her on the shoulder and nodded. “Good.”  
“Good?”  
Garret pulled her around to face him. “We are a secret Elsa.” He told the queen. “The most important secret in history. As your Guardian, I can tell you now that letting your sister know about us is the worst possible thing you could have done.”  
“Why is that?”  
Garret hesitated a moment before answering as if he were weighing his words carefully. “Why do you think we don’t have families?” He asked Elsa. She shrugged. She hadn’t really given much thought to the others’ families. Not while her own was first on her mind. “You are too precious, too dangerous to have such attachments. It would only end badly for them.”  
Elsa suspected his words were meant to comfort but they failed in achieving their intended effect. Instead they filled her with a crushing sorrow that, if she wanted to keep Anna safe, she was going to have to go back to the way things were. Before the Freeze. She was going to have to close the door again. And she didn’t think either of their hearts could take that.  
Elsa wiped her eyes and nodded, pretending Garret’s words had given her strength. He smiled and squeezed her shoulder before stepping away. He could not possibly understand the sacrifice he was asking Elsa to make.  
Elsa gave a squeak of surprise as Scara hugged her tightly, clearly of the same mind as Olaf: that hugs fixed everything. Scara’s didn’t but it wasn’t entirely unpleasant.   
“We are a family, Elsa.” Scara said to her, looking up at her with huge, bright eyes. “We care for each other. And now, we’re going to rescue our troubled sister.”  
Elsa smiled at her, if only to reassure the girl that she was in this for that. She didn’t think she could ever replace Anna, Kristoff, Gerda, Kai, Sven and Olaf with this new “family”. No matter how many spirits told her it was what was right. It was only then that she suddenly realized something important.  
Elsa glanced around. “Where’s Theo?”  
***  
“What do you mean the Queen is gone?”  
It was far too late to be having this conversation. Nevertheless, it had to be had.   
“She slipped out! Earlier this evening if what the Prince saw was correct.”  
Christian leaned back in his chair, taking a deep breath to keep himself from exploding. “How does anyone,” He began, in a deceptively calm and slow voice. “let alone the Queen just slip out of a castle in the dead of night? Especially after an assassination attempt?”  
“The queen prefers small staff and she has no personal guards…”  
“Not even after an assassination?! Does she have a death wish?”  
Lord Wilfred’s only answer was a shrug. The popping of the fire filled the tense silence of the room. It was cool, even for an October evening and the smaller conference room the prince and his confidant had met in was freezing despite the roaring fire in the hearth.   
Christian was still on edge from his encounter with the assassin earlier. He’d spent the last hour cleaning his blade. “If this plan is to work, she has to be alive. Alive and unharmed and here.” Something Hans was by no means making easier at this moment. “I foresee none of those coming to pass at this present moment.” Christian told Lord Wilfred.  
The man fidgeted, drawing his cloak more tightly around himself. “Perhaps this is not the best time to mention that Princess Anna has also left.” He muttered.   
Christian rounded on him. “Then who is running this kingdom?” He demanded.  
“The…the princess’ husband? Lord…sorry, Prince Kristoff.”  
Christian felt his lips curl up in a sneer. “That commoner is sitting on the throne?”  
“Apparently.”  
The prince stalked to the window and glared out at the wavering moonlight. This was so wrong, so very wrong…  
“I don’t see why this would be upsetting…” Lord Wilfred continued as Christian ran over his options in his head. “isn’t…isn’t this the perfect chance to strike?”  
“I am not here to take the kingdom by force!” Christian replied with a snarl that sent Lord Wilfred cowering back away from him. “Elsa is my first priority. A simple coup will not work!”  
A knock at the door made them both freeze. Slowly, it slid open and a messenger slid inside.   
Christian tried to calm himself down. He did have something of an image to maintain. “What do you want boy?” He snapped, somehow managing not to snarl.   
The boy had very fair hair, almost white, so tightly curled that it appeared plastered to his skull. His jacket was pinned haphazardly in the front, so badly that Christian nearly yelled at him for lack of proper regard for appearance. But he supposed if he were a messenger boy working this late at night, getting his uniform on correctly would have been a challenge.  
“I…I have a letter for you, sire.” The boy stammered, holding out a shaking hand. In it, was a ragged envelope covered in untidy scrawl. When he saw it Christian practically leapt the table to snatch the letter from the boy’s hand. He clutched it to his chest as if it were something no one else was meant to see.  
“Out!” He shouted, making the boy flinch. “Out both of you!” He cried, gesturing animatedly at Lord Wilfred.  
Bewildered, the man stood and followed the serving boy out of the room, no doubt wondering what in the world had gotten into the prince.  
Christian slammed the door shut behind them both and hurried over to the fireplace. In the flickering light, his fears were confirmed. He swallowed hard against the sudden rush of bile and fear that had risen from his chest and settled itself in his throat.  
This letter was far worse than any he could have received from Anderson.  
His hands shook as he stared at the seal holding back the contents of the letter. Firelight flickered over the entwined letter and snake on the hardened orange wax.   
This letter bore the crest of his youngest brother.  
***  
“Tip up. Tip up! Elsa! ELSA!”  
Garret’s panicked shout startled Elsa a moment too late. The ice platform they’d been riding on skidded along the canopies of the trees, jarring all the occupants. They slammed into branches, careening roughly from side to side.  
“Whoa! Hang on!” Elsa saw Garret place steadying hands on Theo and Scara’s shoulders as their platform shuddered violently and then shattered under them. They all fell, plummeting downward through the thin canopy under them.   
Branches and twigs scraped at Elsa’s forearms as she covered her face. The ground was flying up too quickly…  
Before Elsa could even think of conjuring snow, a branch cradled her, arresting her descent and gently began to lower her to the ground. She landed hardly but not painfully on her rear end.  
Theo was dropped not two feet from her, Garret some dozen feet ahead of them. Scara descended slowly, giggling as tiny twigs and budding leaves sprouted along the branches wrapped around her, dancing over her skin as if she herself were a branch.  
Elsa pulled herself to her feet, gently brushing leaves from her dress.   
“Well that was fun.” Scara said brightly as the branches deposited her on the ground and slowly curled back into place in the canopy. “I cant remember the last time I had to stop us from falling with branches!” Her voice was far too cheery for such an occasion. It was a little unnerving.   
Theo scoffed as she pulled leaves from her hair. “A bit of a warning before a landing would be appreciated next time.” She said, glaring at Elsa. These were the first words she had spoken to Elsa since they’d last stopped. And they weren’t even spoken directly at her.  
Elsa felt her temper flare immediately along with a burning desire in her stomach to…what? To slap Theo? To shoot ice at her? To kiss her again? She really had no idea how she wanted to react. Ice crackled at her palms and she looked away silently, not caring that Theo was still watching her. She didn’t want to think about any of that now. It had been bad enough looking for Theo after leaving Anna behind.  
In the end, they’d found the summer host crouched by a nearby river, curled in on herself watching dead leaves float past on the water. She rocked slowly back and forth, mumbling softly to herself. Elsa had ignored the way the last beams of twilight cast beautiful shadows on Theo’s neck and shoulders and told herself she was just still worked up from her fight with Anna.   
Theo had not responded to their calls but when Scara had walked up to her and placed a gentle hand on her shoulder she had followed them without a word.  
They had been in the air since, guided by the moonlight as the night progressed and the southerly wind that Scara had conjured to push them along. Now they were somewhere far south of Arendelle, a place Elsa had never visited or even read about before.  
“Where are we?” Scara asked, petting the branch of a nearby bush as if it were a dog begging for attention. “Theo?”  
The summer host glanced around, getting a good look at the small trees and scraggy brush around them. “I’m not sure, we must be only a few miles from the shore by now…” Her voice trailed off suddenly, as if she had been hit over the head with something. Elsa followed her gaze and saw a small clearing not too far from where they were standing. In the center of this clearing was a huge, moss-covered outcropping of rock. The moonlight painted it a strange silvery-green as if it were a giant sleeping troll.   
Garret noticed the catch in Theo’s voice as well. “What is it?” He glanced up, saw the rock and fear shot across his face. “Oh no…”  
Slowly, Theo walked towards the clearing, her eyes sweeping back and forth across the small trees, the dead leaves on the ground. “We’ve been here before.” There was a tremor in her voice that Elsa had never heard before.  
Garret tensed up, as if he were anticipating a fight. “No we haven’t, come on let’s keep moving.”  
“That’s the rock isn’t it?” Theo asked, pointing. She didn’t appear to be listening to him. “That’s where…”  
Her eyes glazed over as memories swirled through her mind.

-“Why are you following me?”  
The boy leapt down from the rock, using the staff in his hands to balance his landing. “I have to.” He said simply.  
“Leave me alone.”  
He stepped closer. “No.” Warmth shone in his black eyes.  
“I’ll hurt you! Get away!”  
A burst of heat. The crackling of dry wood being licked by flames.  
“I’m dangerous…”-

Elsa watched Theo carefully. Emotions flickered across the host’s face in quick succession: fear, despair, anger, grim realization. She dropped to her knees and began tearing at the ground violently. Garret grabbed for her hand but a crippling heat wave and stinging particles of sand drove him back. Theo tore away the covering of dead leaves to reveal a sandy soil underneath. Her fingers dug deep into this earth, flinging it aside. Not two inches under the surface, her fingers hit something black. She stopped digging, her hands turning black as they touched the charcoal under the soil.  
Theo scrambled to her feet and looked around frantically. It seemed as if she were seeing the landscape anew, with an entirely different meaning behind each twig and leaf. “We’re here again…it’s the forest…the one…” Her entire body was shaking. The soot on her fingertips peeled itself away from her skin and circled tightly in the air around her hands.   
Garret approached her slowly, his arms in front of him like he was trying placate a wounded animal. “Theo…calm down, you’re fine…we’re too far west, this cant be the same woods…” His voice was smooth, calm, completely rational, even as his eyes darted around in fear.   
Theo sprinted away from him and Garret reacted immediately. The summer host raced to the giant rock in the clearing and dove under an overhang, her hands scrabbling at the dirt. Garret dove after her, grabbing her by the shoulders and trying to wrestle her back out. Elsa and Scara watched, utterly lost.   
“What’s going on?” Elsa asked Scara.   
She only shook her head. Scara had no idea what was going on here.   
Garret finally dragged Theo back out into the darkness, his arms wrapped tightly around her waist. Theo had gone limp, resigned to losing this fight. Slowly, they reentered the moon-light, Garret half-supporting the stumbling summer host.   
Theo was staring at her left hand, oblivious to the world. “It’s here…it’s…” Clutched in her hand was a tiny, misshapen glass orb.   
Garret’s arms were suddenly around Theo.   
“You’re okay…” He said softly, gently stroking her hair. “It’s alright, look. See how it’s come back?”  
Theo let out a strangled sob and buried her face in the Guardian’s shoulder. The hand holding the glass ball dangled limply by her side. Garret softly stroked her hair as she broke down in his arms.   
Watching them, Elsa felt something burst to life in her chest, a fire born of the spark that had burned in the deepest, darkest part of her for the past few months. But to her surprise, the feeling was not directed at Theo but rather, at Garret. It was a steady, burning desire for him to let her go, to step away so that her own arms could take up his task. The feeling overwhelmed her, running down her limbs and clouding her sight until all she could see was them, all she could imagine was the way Theo’s head would fit against her shoulder.   
Elsa took an unconscious step forward, intent on knocking him away from her to put some kind of physical distance between them but stopped abruptly, her hand outstretched. Was this…jealousy? The realization was enough to make her retreat backwards, shame quickly replacing the burning in her chest. Neither Garret nor Theo had noticed her momentary desire to take the Guardian’s place. Garret was still murmuring comforting words to Theo, she was still clutching the glass orb, crying unabashedly into his chest. Looking more closely, Elsa realized that there was nothing at all intimate about the way they were wrapped up in each other. There was no desire associated with the closeness, instead, there was a deep, comforting need for support that seemed to be inherent in the embrace. Theo was at her most vulnerable and completely relying on Garret to hold her together both physically and emotionally. He was only concerned with letting her know that he was there, keeping her safe.   
The shame burned even deeper when Elsa realized she had been ready to rip that assurance away from Theo, all for the sake of this selfish desire.   
“Where are we?” Scara asked softly.   
Garret half turned to them, Theo’s face still pressed into his chest. “These are the woods where Branna was awakened.” He said in a reverent whisper. He looked down at the girl in his arms with a tiny smile in his eyes. “This is where I found my first host.”

-There was smoke everywhere, making it impossible to see. Impossible to breathe.  
Deep inside there was a rumbling voice, a voice that was not her own filling her head with endless thoughts and visions: a flickering lantern at dawn, vast fields of ice melting in a summer’s gale, a quill writing in blood-red ink…  
A tree crashed down, embers flying everywhere. Everything was burning, screaming.  
Dying.  
Suddenly he was there, his arms were all around, his eyes blazing hotter than the flames around them. He saved her. He would protect her. Always.-

The woods around them were silent and still, not even a bird or bat called to break the silence, not a single animal crawled in the undergrowth. Even the trees around them, little more than twelve feet tall seemed stiff and unreal, incapable of rustling in a breeze. Now that Elsa noticed it, the entire woods seemed too unnatural. Even the moonlight looked different, stiff and more haunting, creating more shadows than it did light.  
Theo sobbed and shook her head into Garret’s chest. “I burned these down…I…I almost…” She looked up at Garret with huge, sorrowful eyes. Tears streamed down her face.   
The guardian gently pulled her into an embrace again, resting his chin on her head. “It’s in the past, Theo. Nature has restored the balance…you’re in control now.”  
She stiffened against him. Her eyes snapped open. “Am I? Am I in control Garret?”  
A spark snapped from her right hand followed quickly by another. The dead leaves under a nearby tree smoldered softly, several tiny flames beginning to breathe to life and lick at the trunk. The tree suddenly seemed more like a tree, creaking and stirring as the fire began to eat at it again.  
Garret tightened his hold on Theo and turned to Elsa worriedly. “Put it out!” He shouted at her. “Put it out! Now!”  
Reacting more in surprise than obedience, Elsa shot ice at the flames until the base of the tree was covered in rime and the fires had dwindled to nothing but smoke. The forest remained silent.  
“She’s so strong…” Theo murmured, as if to herself. Her knees trembled and it seemed like Garret was the only thing keeping her from crumpling to a mess on the ground. “A human was not meant to hold such power…”  
Elsa’s lips parted slightly in surprise. How many times had that thought plagued her as a child? “We should stop here for tonight.” She suggested. “She needs to rest, we all do.”  
Garret turned to Elsa again as Theo’s head lifted from his shoulder. “We can’t stay here.” He told the queen. But Theo was nodding in agreement, regarding Elsa with an expression somewhere between gratitude and remorse. She pulled herself away from Garret, trying to assume the strong, self-sufficient demeanor that she had always carried about her.  
He made to grab her shoulder but Theo shrugged off his hand. “I’ll be fine.” She told him. “Let’s make camp.”  
They stayed in the clearing, near the giant rock that had caused Theo to come apart. The shadow cast by its overhang made a perfect spot for the small group to tuck themselves out of the way for a night in the strange forest.  
‘Camp’ Elsa learned, was just a fancy way of saying ‘make yourself comfortable for a long night’. Scara shaped herself a hammock of vines and branches to suspend her between two trees. She offered Elsa one but Elsa politely declined. She’d just been thrown from a tree, she would not spend the night hanging in one. She opted instead to create herself a soft snowbank under the overhang. She would have made an entire bed from ice but decided against it when she saw Garret curling up to sleep on the ground, his axe his only companion. He too had refused a hammock.  
With her back against the side of the enormous rock, Theo started a small campfire with a flick of her fingers and crouched forlornly next to it. She was still playing with the glass ball in her hand, watching the way the light from the fire flickered across its uneven surface.  
“What is that?” Scara plopped herself down next to Theo and gazed at the ball in her hand. “It looks different from your other ones.”  
A smile flickered across Theo’s face for the briefest of seconds. “It was the first one I ever made. I had no idea what I was doing. It just kind of…happened.”  
Scara ran a gentle finger across the glass, a dreamy look on her face. “What was it doing here?”  
Theo weighed the glass in her palm as if contemplating smashing it. “Whenever I visit somewhere I hope to return to, I leave a glass ball there.” Theo told her. “That way I never forget a place. And a piece of me remains for me to eventually reclaim. I guess it was time for me to get this piece back.” She turned the ball over in her hand, her gaze clouding. “Sadly it’s one I never wanted returned…”  
Scara curled her arm around Theo’s and tucked her head onto the older girl’s shoulder. Theo leaned into the touch, if only slightly.   
“Why is that?” Theo and Scara both looked up as Elsa joined them. She couldn’t just watch from a distance anymore. Garret was falling asleep at the edge of the overhang and she had no desire to face her nightmares yet. “Why leave one here if you never wanted to come back?” Elsa asked Theo. She stood at the opposite side of the fire, keeping the flames between them as if it would somehow help ease this conversation.  
“I left it before I set the forest on fire.” Theo replied in a clipped voice. “I had forgotten about it.”  
Scara shifted slightly and the annoyance immediately fell off of Theo’s face.   
“It’s very late Scara,” Theo told the spring host gently. “you should think about sleeping.”  
Scara yawned, almost obediently. “Livet says we’re close…she can feel her sister crying out…” A tiny shiver raced through her as she said those words. The toad lily in her hair closed tightly, like a Venus flytrap ensnaring a bug.   
Theo helped the girl stand, a motherly arm on her shoulder. “Try to sleep,” She brushed the bangs back from the girl’s forehead. “please?”  
Scara nodded absently and stumbled off towards her hammock. Theo didn’t take her eyes off of the girl until she had settled into her bed and closed her eyes.   
“She seems…different out here.” Elsa observed.  
Theo did not respond, instead she turned back to the fire and stared at it intently. As if she believed that if she took her eyes off of the flames for a second, they would spring out of her control and set the trees on fire again. Her brows were knit tightly together, casting dark shadows over her red eyes. The piece of glass in her hand glowed a light bluish color from the angle Elsa could see it.  
Her heart pounding, Elsa moved and sat in Scara’s vacated spot, although not nearly as close to Theo as the spring host had been sitting. For awhile, neither of them said anything and the fire filled the silence as it hungrily devoured the sticks upon it. Elsa knew there was really no reason for her to keep Theo company. All the same, she couldn’t help but feel that the fire-girl didn’t want to be alone right now. Just as she didn’t want to be alone.  
A slight breeze wafted through the clearing, sending a few dead leaves drifting past the two sitting in heavy silence. The trees did not move. “It’s very warm for October…” Elsa said casually. Great, small-talk about the weather. She berated herself silently for her terrible choice of conversation prompts.  
“It’s like this all over.” Elsa turned to Theo in surprise as she answered. Theo was still staring into the fire but her gaze had relaxed considerably. “Warm when it should be cool, raining when it should be cold.”   
“Not in Arendelle.” Elsa pointed out. They’d already had several frosts and Kristoff had reported normal conditions in the mountains only a few days ago.   
“It must be because you’re there.” Theo said. She glanced up at Elsa. “Maybe that’s why Isen has remained hidden all this time. She’s trying to keep the balance.”  
“Why would that help balance things? Wouldn’t she be better able to do that if she were awakened?”   
Theo just shrugged. “Nothing makes sense anymore.” She said, curling in on herself forlornly. She closed her fist tightly around the glass ball. “Autumn’s gone into hiding, Branna’s getting more upset, Livet’s powers are strengthening too quickly…It all just seems like a viscous cycle that just wont stop…”  
“Would waking Isen fix it?”Elsa asked.  
“Possibly. It would at least help with our Autumn problem.” Theo lifted her head from her knees and gazed into the fire again. “You have a special link to Autumn, the kind that runs differently than that between her and Scara and Scara and myself. Død and Isen were very close, Død trusts her more than she does Branna or even Livet. Autumn opens the way for Winter.” She held up her glass ball again and studied it carefully, as if searching for flaws. “If anyone can wake Isen when she’s this deeply buried, it’ll be her favorite little sister.”  
Elsa tensed noticeably at those words. It did not go unnoticed by Theo. She watched her with narrowed eyes as if trying to see something she only suspected was there.   
“What did your sister want?” She asked, placing the glass on a rock beside the fire.  
“I don’t want to talk about her.” Elsa snapped. Theo flinched and turned away.   
“I was just wondering…” She muttered quietly. “Doesn’t seem like you to just leave her frozen to a tree in the middle of the woods.”  
Now it was Elsa’s turn to flinch. “I had to. To protect her.” She once again wondered how much of that conversation Theo had heard and how to go about figuring that out.  
Theo shook her head in disbelieve. “How did you do it?” She asked. “Know that you had that much control over the ice? That you could make it go where you wanted it to without even seeing it? How did you possibly know that you wouldn’t hurt her?”  
“I didn’t know it was her.” Elsa admitted. “And I don’t know…it just kind of happened that way. Ever since I learned control that’s just the way it’s been.” She stared into the flames, watching them lick and devour the sticks and logs in their way.  
“Show me.”  
Elsa looked up. “What?”  
Theo stood up, her face falling into shadow as she left the immediate firelight. “Show me how you do it.”  
Elsa rose slowly, using the rock for support. “Okay…well.” She waved her hands and a tiny snow flurry appeared above the fire, making the flames sputter and spit black smoke. With a twist of her wrist, the flurry disappeared again.  
Theo watched hungrily, undeniable desire in her gaze as she watched Elsa’s fine control.   
“I cant really explain it.” Elsa warned her, a little nervous under that gaze. “It’s just something that started happening after the Thaw.”  
Theo gestured for Elsa to step out from under the overhang, back into the open air of the clearing. “Again.” She demanded.  
Elsa conjured up a snowball and threw it upward, letting it burst into a snow flurry and rain around them. She gathered the falling snow into a spiral around her and made it form a snowball once again. Then, she dropped it and it vanished before it could hit the ground.   
Theo watched all this with a desperate fascination, as if she were trying to memorize exactly what Elsa was doing so she could replicate it later. She was a warrior studying battle strategy, Elsa realized. Something Elsa had certainly never had to do.  
Elsa let her hands fall to her sides. “Now, you show me.”  
Theo blinked, confused. “What?”  
“I haven’t been in many fights.” Elsa admitted. “Particularly not with others like me. Well, except…” She offered Theo an apologetic smile and was surprised to receive a timid one in return. “Plus, I have no idea what we’ll be fighting tomorrow, if we do fight. So maybe…you could…show me some things?”   
Theo considered the request for a moment. Raising a hand, she let a tiny amount of smoke leak from her fingers and studied the way it drifted in the cool night air.   
“Branna has taught me everything I know.” She finally said. “She has watched over a hundred hosts of Isen learn to control their powers, we can teach you a thing or two.” She closed and lowered her fist, the remaining smoke disappearing into the sky. “You and I are the conjurers. Scara and Autumn’s host are the manipulators. They cant create the matter, only control it. You and I, we create the snow and the fire.”  
She shifted slightly and beckoned for Elsa to come a bit closer. The queen complied, feeling anxious. “Now, our elements respond to two things,” Theo continued. “know what they are?”  
Elsa knew one all too well. “Emotion.”   
Theo nodded. “Correct. The spirits are complex and emotional beings. Their emotions are so unfathomable to us that they can only be seen deep within the rippling effects that they produce. Branna’s anger creates flames, her sorrow stirs the sands. Isen is similar: her fear calls the ice and her loneliness is the cold.”   
“And her love thaws it.”  
An unreadable expression crossed Theo’s face. “Apparently.”  
“What does Branna’s love do?” Elsa wondered aloud, suddenly very curious. “To your sand and fire?”  
Theo gave her a smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes. “I wouldn’t know that.” She said quietly. “I’ve never been loved enough to know.”  
“Surely you have.”  
She gave a curt shake of her head. “Nope.”  
“What about your family? Or Garret and Scara?”  
“Elsa,” Theo said in a very controlled voice. “there is a difference between being loved and being tolerated.”   
Elsa shook her head. “I refuse to believe your family never loved you. I refuse to believe that Scara doesn’t. She treats you like a sister.”  
“All the same, if one is not taught love young, it becomes impossible to feel love when older.” The summer host turned away from the queen slightly, looking back at the fire.   
Elsa took a step closer, reaching out for Theo. “Surely there is someone you love?”  
The gentle question made Theo turn back. She was silent but her gaze bored into Elsa so deeply that Elsa found had to look away. It was a look she knew all too well. The look of someone who wants so desperately to love but is afraid to do so.   
The trees around them bowed slightly in a sudden breeze as if only just remembering how trees are supposed to react in wind. They swooshed and swayed briefly before going still again. Elsa glanced around the clearing, following the movements, her eyes wandering back to the flames by the rock. The fire they had been sitting at had burned itself down to a tiny controlled flame, barely more than a candle. But there was still plenty of untouched wood on the fire. The flame did not seem to feel the wind as the trees did. It seemed merely as if the fire had no desire to consume anymore, it was content just to be a tiny flame. Elsa stared at the dying flames, completely dumbfounded. Was this…?  
But as soon as Elsa noticed it, the fire suddenly flared back to life.   
“Like I said,” Theo continued, apparently having not noticed the momentary taming of the fire. “I’m not so good with loving. Maybe I was loved once, maybe I am loved now. But I have never been able to let myself love anyone. That is the difference.” Her voice bore the kind of conviction Elsa knew it would be useless to argue against.  
Elsa turned back to her. “So what’s the second thing?” She asked, wrapping her arms around herself.  
Theo took a moment to collect her thoughts before she answered. “We are the centers of these raging storms.” She began. “We are the source of the power. And in order to be a good source, we must be a sturdy structure and clear channel for the elements. Posture and form. That is what guides the element. This is what we’ll teach you.”  
She spread her legs and swung her arms in a wide, rotating circle. Sparks and tiny tongues of flame formed a ring within her moving hands, gradually growing larger and brighter. Elsa got the sense that Theo could release this wheel as a burst of flame whenever she decided to.   
Crouching and splaying her fingers, Theo let the flames stretch into the surrounding air and slowly dissipate. Then she stumbled, breathing heavily. “That’s about the best I can do right now.” She panted, wiping her forehead. “Branna’s strength is almost gone because of the coming winter. Brute strength will have to come from you.”  
“What?” Elsa exclaimed. “So I’ll be…?”  
“You’ll be our main prong of attack.” Theo clarified. “Neither Scara nor myself will have the strength to hold Autumn back at her full strength. If we end up having to fight her tomorrow, I cant be worrying about you. Død’s attacks can be sneaky, you’ll have to be quick on your feet and ready for anything. And the best way I can prepare you for that is to teach you how to let the forces flow unrestricted. If Isen really is in there somewhere, she’ll be able to move the ice far faster than you can. She’ll be able to protect you if you cant.”  
“But I can already do that.” Elsa said stubbornly. “I can control myself and protect myself just fine even while Isen’s asleep.”  
Theo shrugged. “Humor me, let’s see if it changes anything.” She stepped closer to Elsa. “You never know, maybe this time it’ll finally work.”  
Elsa bit her lip as Theo stood behind her. She raised her arms as if about to conjure ice. She could feel Theo watching her.   
“Turn your hand like this.” Her hand slid down to cover Elsa’s and she felt an involuntary gasp leave her lips. Theo either ignored it or was very good at pretending not to hear it because her hand did not leave Elsa’s and she did not pull away. Gently, her fingers tugged Elsa’s into a flatter, more streamlined shape. “Keep your fingers like that but loosely, don’t stiffen or you’ll hurt yourself.” She briefly shook Elsa’s wrist to get her to relax her fingers. Her hand followed Elsa’s arm until she reached her elbow. “Bend this slightly.” She gently applied pressure until Elsa complied. Her hand drifted up to Elsa’s bicep, curling around it softly. “Now, call the ice to you…” Already the cold was swirling at Elsa’s fingertips, the ice in her veins pulsing to the time of her racing heart, desperate to be freed. “and direct a steady blast towards that tree…”   
Elsa tried to call to the ice but it didn’t respond. There was a breath of warm air by her ear. “Don’t even think, just let it happen. Don’t try to let the ice come, just let the energy flow, unrestricted.”  
Cool air began to drift from Elsa’s fingertips, just as naturally as a breeze. There was no effort on her part. All the same, it felt like it was her doing it. It was just like the feeling her powers had given her during the years she couldn’t control them: a steady flow of power from her center outwards into the world. Only this time, she knew she could stop it. She knew that if she wanted to, all she had to do was command them to stop and they would. There was a steady, almost pleasant pressure in her chest, like breathing very cold air and feeling it warm within her lungs before exhaling. Elsa let out a shaky breath and let the feeling consume her. The grip on her arm tightened reassuringly.  
Ice shot from her palm in a concentrated flurry, solidifying into an enormous icicle mid-flight. It sliced right through the tree, the bark and wood cracking with a sound like thunder. Everything happened far faster than Elsa had ever known it to.  
Theo let go of Elsa’s arm and the pressure in her chest vanished.   
“Of course, this is all theory.” She remarked drily, watching the tree crack and slowly fall onto the rock where the wood shattered completely. “Branna can tell me a hundred times to bend my knees more but ultimately the flames will go where they want to go. Where she decides they need to go. Me bending my knees more will only make it easier on my body in the long run.” She sounded dejected as she walked away from Elsa, back towards the fire.  
“Have you tried slowing down at all?” Elsa asked.   
Theo paused. “What?”  
Elsa remembered the intense concentration she’d had in her mother’s garden a few days ago. Then, the creations had been of her own concentration and mind, her movements carefully planned and executed to allow for the proper shapes and structures. “It’s worked for me, concentrating deeply, letting myself just flow through the motions. Giving in to a positive emotion and just consciously doing. It’s what guided me in making my ice palace I think.”  
Theo scoffed quietly. “That’s the difference between us. You flow, I burn. Snow drifts, fire dances. My movements have to be quick and precise. Ice can be shaped and formed but fire just destroys.” She sat back down against the rock and stretched her hands towards the fire. It snapped and flared in response and she glared back at it. “You can practice. I don’t have that benefit. One wrong move, one slip of control and I burn down an entire forest.”  
Elsa slowly made her way back to her spot by the fire, contemplating what Theo had taught her. “Is this what Isen would have taught me?” She asked, sliding down next to Theo, perhaps a bit closer than she had previously. “Were she awake?”  
“Yes.” Theo replied. Their shoulders were brushing but neither of them seemed to care.  
Elsa shook her head. “Where was she all those years I needed her? All those years I struggled to control it?” All those times she’d sat alone in the dark and the cold, wishing for some semblance of control over her life again. Just wishing not to be alone.  
“I don’t know that.” Theo replied. She was playing with her glass orb again. “But I may know why she’s hiding.”  
“Why?”  
“Me.”  
“Why you?”  
Theo met Elsa’s eyes. “This could be my fault. We were kept apart for so long…it probably drove Isen into hiding. She knew I would not be around to help you if she awoke. After how things went last time, with Mirabelle, she probably thought it would be best if she kept quiet as long as possible.” Her gaze held a thousand apologies, all of which made Elsa wonder how different her life might have been if Theo had been in it from the start.  
Elsa laid a gentle hand on Theo’s arm. “But you’re here now.” She assured her.  
“That doesn’t forgive my absence.” Theo said, the muscles in her arm under Elsa’s hand contracting slightly. “Isen is delicate and she depends on Branna to be her support.”  
“Why is that?”  
Theo sighed. “Remember how I told you they were married?”  
Elsa nodded, an uneasy feeling floating up out of her stomach.   
“Isen was the Mother’s oldest child.” Theo began, staring into the crackling flames. “Branna was the daughter she adopted from another deity, that of the banished Light Goddess. Isen became Branna’s friend, sister and confidant. They grew up together, studied together and taught each other. Eventually, the two of them fell in love, even though it was not really possible for them to be together. After all, they were technically sisters.”  
“Branna was a scribe by trade, recording the stories Isen told and the scriptures of the Mother. But when she learned of her true parentage, she trained to be a warrior in the tradition of her brothers: the Sun Soldiers who served the Light Goddess. They fought in a great war to restore their Goddess to the realm and bring back the sunlight that had been banished by the Night Realm. In the midst of this great battle, Branna was struck and gravely injured.”  
“Isen was an Oracle, a Seer. She often had visions of the past and present and occasionally, even the future. She saw that Branna had fallen, and, believing her love to be dead, she fell into a deep despair. A Long Winter came from her sorrow, one that even the Mother could not lift. The ocean itself froze, the ice came down the mountains and covered the land. With the Winter, the war ended and the Light Goddess was restored, hoping that she could end the suffering. But the air had become so cold that even the newly-restored sun lost its heat. The entire land remained cold and frozen.   
“Branna eventually recovered and when she woke, trekked diligently across two realms to make it back to her love. When they were reunited, Isen was overjoyed but found she still could not lift the winter. Her spell had been cast and there was no way to stop it. But Branna had discovered something in her time at war, a fire deep within her much like that of her birth mother. A fire that provided a perfect contrast to Isen’s cold. A great gust swept through the land, unlocking the rivers and warming the skies. Slowly, the land thawed.   
“The Mother granted the two of them permission to marry when she saw how they complimented each other, just how right they had been about being together. When the spirits were banished, even as Winter and Summer were separated and brought about at opposite times of year, Branna vowed that she would keep them together, no matter the cost. Erin and Ileana shared a birthday, they ruled the first Council together…”  
Theo abruptly stopped. She seemed embarrassed that she had been speaking so long. “Branna and her hosts have transcribed all the stories.” She offered by way of apology, rubbing the back of her neck awkwardly. “So I know them all…”  
“What about the other spirits?” Elsa asked, curious to learn about these legends. “Spring and Autumn, were they also adopted?”  
Theo shook her head. “No, Branna was the only one. Livet and Død are the Mother’s twins, born just before the Mother adopted Branna. They are complete opposites but they are so intrinsically linked that they feel everything about the other.”  
Elsa glanced towards the hammock. “Is that why Scara’s so…?” Elsa didn’t have a word to describe Scara’s current state.   
Theo clenched her fist around the glass ball. “Scara’s missing half of herself while Død’s host rejects her. She’s withdrawn again…everyday I see her regress more, silently, trying not to draw my attention to it. And it’s killing me. To see her like this again…” She swallowed hard and let her fist fall open again. The glass glowed orange in the firelight. “She needs Autumn. Only when they are together again will she be able to grow up, to move on. She’s been like this ever since the day we met.” She glanced over at the hammock, her gaze softening. “Always incomplete, always caught somewhere between childhood and growing up into the fine young woman I know she can be. Her life has been a constant, fruitless struggle as she tries to achieve something she cant without her other half.”  
Elsa stared into the fire, watching the flames lick hungrily at the logs. “What about you?” She asked, suddenly feeling bold enough to try.  
“What about me?”  
“What was your childhood like?”  
Theo stiffened. “I didn’t have one.”  
“Everyone has a childhood.”  
“Not me.” Theo folded her hands in her lap, keeping them tightly bound together, the glass pressed between her palms. “Most of my life, I was on my own. My parents were wood-folk and after the third house, they started to realize I brought the fires.”  
Elsa was silent. She suspected this was a rare moment of honesty for Theo. A peek into a dark room lit only by the tiniest of candles. So she kept quiet and still and watched.  
Theo gazed up at the short canopy overhead, watching the tendrils of the northern lights flicker, almost as if she were contemplating her story. And how much she should tell. “They called me a curse, a demon. When I was six they gave me away to Antony, a friend who brought me up to the mountains to live among the ice-harvesters. It was there that I learned the real power of my apparent gift, and the danger. I accidentally melted so many frozen lakes, the harvesters also began to call me unlucky. They wanted to get rid of me but Antony wouldn’t let them. He protected me and cared for me. He taught me how to read and how to think. He showed me the beauty in ice. The others kept their distance though. The only reason they kept me around was because of my uncanny ability to split ice with a single strike. I suppose that’s where I met your friend, although I confess, I don’t remember him that well. I was never very good at getting to know other children. They never made an effort to know me.  
“Then one day, Antony and I were standing on supposedly stable ice when it suddenly vanished beneath us. We were both pulled under the lake, down into a river. I survived and was eventually able to climb out.” Her fingers closed around the glass ball again. “Antony… was not so lucky.”

-Sand. Sand was freedom. It was stability. Feet found purchase, lungs finally found air.  
Cold and sharp, it rushed in, clearing away the blackness from the water’s pressing. Coughing, sand scraping everywhere.  
“…Tony…” No sign of him. Steam curled from clothes, twisting in the cold night air. Skin was warm, feverish. Stars blazed overhead, pinpricks of fire in the dark ice still hanging overhead.   
“Antony!”  
There was no answer.-

She tore her gaze away from the stars. “I couldn’t go back, not with his death on my hands. The other ice-masters would have just driven me out or finally killed me. So I left, I wandered through the northern woods, fending for myself in the northern mountains. It was so cold…but I felt nothing. All of me was consumed with fire. Fire so intense I felt like I was burning where I stood. I would have died if not for my powers. I wanted to die.”  
Theo swallowed hard, the firelight illuminating wetness in her eyes. “My sorrow and desperation awakened Branna within me and she drew Garret to me. He’d been training in the mountains, waiting for the day when the spirits would be awakened and he could assume his duties as our guardian. He was only twelve.”  
One hand absently traced the rock at their back, fingers scraping across the rough surface. “I tried to run from him at first, scared of his attachment to me. He followed me for days, tailing me to this forest. I tried to scare him off but only ended up setting fire to this area. He carried me out in his arms, severely burning himself in the process. I nursed him back to health and I’ve never left him since.”  
“We found Scara a few days later. Livet had awoken in her because she sensed my proximity and wanted to be found. Scara was playing quietly outside an overgrown cottage, waiting for her parents to return.” Theo’s gaze darkened. The memory was not a pleasant one. “Her story is even worse than mine…”

-“Who are you?” Garret asked the young girl kindly. He froze as she smiled up at him, his eyes flashing green.  
“My name is Scara!” She said happily. In her tiny hands, she was holding several blades of fine spring grass, twisted together into a braid.  
The Guardian fell to his knees and bonded himself to his second host, the little girl of Spring. She watched him complete his ceremony with curious, trusting eyes not even wincing when he had to take his own blood.  
“Are you angels?” The child asked, her brilliant green eyes taking them in warmly.  
“No.”  
“We’ve been travelling through the forest for many days.” Garret said, standing and placing his hand on her shoulder. The touch was calming. “Are your parents around?”  
Scara shook her head.“You must be tired! Go inside and help yourself to food.” She told them. “My parents will be back soon!”  
Together they entered the house, needed both of them to push open the door. Inside it was dark and cool, the air thick with an unpleasantly strong flowery scent.  
“What the…?”  
The entirety of the tiny cabin was clogged with thick, flowering vines. It was nearly dark inside, all the windows having been smashed by the plants which were twitching restlessly.  
Bile rose. Nostrils burned.  
“Garret!” He turned and looked up.  
Hanging from the ceiling, dangling in the vines were two soft, decaying corpses.-

Elsa drew a sharp intake of breath. “She…she killed her own parents?”  
Theo opened her eyes and looked at Elsa sharply. “She doesn’t know. And she is never to find out. She was only five, her powers spun out of control in those crucial first moments of Livet’s awakening. Død was in turmoil so Livet had no one to stabilize her and she lashed out. Even life can bring destruction. We took her away without letting her look inside.”   
“You never told her?”  
Theo looked at Elsa hopelessly. “Would you want to know?” She asked. Elsa didn’t answer. “Scara has always seen our powers as wonderful gifts. The world she knows is a beautiful and precious place, life is a good force, gentle and giving. I cant take that away from her. We told her someone had taken her parents away, that she was our responsibility now. And she came with us, never looking back.”  
Theo leaned her head back against the rock, seeming physically drained from saying so much. “Somewhere, deep down I think she knows. Or at least suspects. Livet feels guilty about it, I know. She has gone to great lengths to help Scara. She hardly ever lets her full power loose so that it’s easier for Scara to train and control herself. On the spring equinox she leads Scara to a special place near the temple and helps her create a magnificent garden.”   
“So what happened after you found her?” Elsa prompted.   
“We wandered for a few more months, Scara and I ignoring the voices in our heads that kept trying to talk to us and fighting the strange powers that seemed desperate to burst forth from us.”  
The fire snapped, almost as if in response to Theo’s words and the summer host glared at the flames again. “The spirits led us to the hall of Mother, where we have remained ever since.” She continued. “Upon finding it, Branna asserted her dominance over me and declared me Head Councilor. We entered a deep meditation, rendering me inert for nearly a week. When we emerged, we had reached our agreement and I had acknowledged my birth-right. The Council was forming again.”  
She sighed heavily. “By the time I reconciled as Head Councilor, I was thirteen. No longer a child. I never had that luxury. My early years were a constant battle to protect those around me from myself. First my family, then my fellow harvesters then Garret and especially Scara. Then it became a struggle for survival. I had to keep Scara safe and make sure we stayed alive in our isolation. That’s all I’ve been doing. All my life. It’s all I can do.”   
Elsa was quiet for a long time, letting the story sink it, marveling at its resemblance to her own. Something about it bothered her though, although she couldn’t quite put her finger on it.  
“If it helps,” She said after a few minutes of silence. “I didn’t really have much of a childhood either.”  
Theo looked at her. “Oh really?”  
Elsa nodded. “My parents locked us inside the castle. Until I learned how to control my powers.”  
“They were afraid of you.” There was no accusation or distain in Theo’s words. Just a painful truth.  
Elsa smiled sadly. “Not always.” She said quietly. She let her mind drift back, to memories she hadn’t considered in years. Her parents were still a sensitive subject with her, even almost four years after the shipwreck. There were still days Elsa awoke, thinking that today her father would be with her in a meeting, her mother would teach her proper French etiquette and let her read from the archives.   
Those were the same days she unconsciously reached for the gloves upon waking.   
“For awhile, they didn’t think anything of it.” Elsa recalled, not looking at Theo as she began her tale. “They turned a blind eye mostly. Maybe they thought I would outgrow it, as most children do their strange quirks and skills. For several years, my powers were just a secret plaything that Anna and I used to have fun.”  
Tears pricked at her eyes. “I used to build her snowmen…” And laugh with her, and be her big sister. Her one companion in a giant castle. “But that all changed with one accident.”  
Elsa could tell Theo was watching her intently, she could tell the fear and pain was evident in her voice. But she ignored it and plowed on. It was cathartic, almost. Telling everything like this instead of keeping it locked up in her memory. “We were just playing one night…a night like any other. Having fun, not worrying about anything. Then…” Elsa swallowed hard, as the moment that had come to define her life flashed through her mind’s eye yet again.   
Cold. Unmoving. Silent.  
“I struck her.” Elsa choked out, not realizing she had begun to cry. “She wasn’t moving, she’d frozen like ice. The trolls were able to save her but at the cost of her not knowing about my powers anymore. And they warned that they could not save her again. Nothing could save her from me. My parents decided it would be best for both of us to be protected from the world: me from my dangerous powers that people would grow to fear and Anna from the possibility of being hurt by those powers.”  
“So they closed the gates. And I stayed away from Anna. To keep her safe.” A tear fell from her cheek, splashing onto her knee. Elsa tried to get herself back under control but the story would not be stopped. It poured out of her, desperate to be free. “For fourteen years I kept a door between us at all times. But she just didn’t give up. She was always knocking on my door, begging me to come play with her, to build snowmen with her. She’d sit outside my door for hours and tell me stories, slip me notes under the door and leave me gifts of chocolate and pastries. And the whole time, I had to act like I didn’t care…just to keep her safe. But she never gave up, she just kept trying.”  
“On top of that, I was trying to keep my powers hidden away constantly. My parents were always trying to keep me down, keep my true nature repressed.” Elsa flexed her naked fingers. “’Conceal, don’t feel.’ They used to tell me. So I learned to hide myself away. Tried not to feel.”  
“But part of what made the control so hard was that it was so imperative that I not feel anything. And how could I do that when Anna was always there, knocking on my door, wanting nothing more than for me to play with her?”  
Elsa felt her fingers clench tightly around her own arm. She wondered if she had the strength to finish her story. “And then…after our parents died……I…I couldn’t be there for her.” Elsa closed her eyes, feeling the tears flow steadily down her face. “She sat outside my door and cried and begged for me to come out.”   
“And I couldn’t.” It came out as barely a whisper.  
Suddenly, a warm hand was at her chin, gently tugging her to look around. Theo wiped Elsa’s tears away with her thumb, offering her a smile.   
“You really love Anna don’t you…” Theo said shakily.  
“Anna is…everything.” Elsa said honestly. “She’s my world.”  
The two of them sat there for a moment, in a position that had somehow managed to become comfortable between them: Theo gently holding Elsa’s face, gazing into her eyes. They had faced similar struggles, Elsa realized. They bore similar burdens of leadership they did not feel worthy of. Maybe that’s why they hadn’t liked each other when they first met. They had each recognized a kindred spirit in the other; a thick mask hiding a fragile, scared little girl. A mask they both despised because of its familiarity. A mask they both thought they had cast off.   
Theo looked down and slowly let go of Elsa, her fingers lingering a bit. “That’s something I never anticipated…” She said, more to herself than to Elsa.   
Elsa quickly dried her eyes. “What?”  
Theo was quiet for a moment, as if she hadn’t heard Elsa’s question. She was gazing down at the glass in her hand. It was glowing blue again. “Elsa when we first discovered you…when we realized just who you were and where you were…we knew about the gates being closed for fourteen years. Goren had the records.” Elsa wasn’t sure how to feel about this. But the compelling, quiet confession was so unlike the Theo she had come to know that she kept silent.   
“The day we found out about you…” Theo continued softly. “I’d been searching, calling out to Isen with Branna, hoping I could finally find you. And then Goren rolled into the room, announcing that it was snowing in summer…” she paused, licked her lips and took a slow breath. “I don’t know just…something about the thought of you as a scared seven-year-old, all alone in that huge castle with your powers…deep down I think I…I felt something for you. A kind of…kinship.”  
She looked at Elsa, seeming a little ashamed of her confession and suddenly, Elsa knew what it was. She knew why Theo’s story had bothered her. Whenever she spoke of her past, Theo got the same look in her eyes that had glanced at Elsa from every mirror when she had been behind the door. Behind the fury, her eyes blazed with the same self-hatred that Elsa knew all too well. Theo was still behind a door, Elsa realized. She had no one to pull her out from it, to show her a world of possibilities that lay beyond it. She had always been trapped. And now, she was reaching out.  
Theo chuckled uneasily at Elsa’s silence. “Then of course I met you and it all came crashing down.”  
Elsa couldn’t help the giggle that burst from her at that. “Oh really? What was your first impression of me?”  
“Spoiled, self-centered, desperate to be accepted.” Theo said smoothly with a hint of a grin.  
Elsa quirked an eyebrow. “And now?”  
Theo shrugged. “Now…I’m not really sure.” She admitted. She brushed a lock of hair back. “Every time I see you it seems like a new facet of you is revealed. When I first met you, I realized you were strong, stronger than I could ever hope to be. Not just in your powers, in your emotions. And you stood alone so effortlessly, defending what you loved. In the temple, I saw how well you handled Branna’s wrath, even though she was a goddess. And still you stood up for yourself. You were brave, fearless. When we were at the ice palace, I saw how you cared about life and beauty. How you built castles in your mind to keep yourself sane. How you saw beauty and functionality in your gift.”  
Theo turned to look at Elsa, her cheeks tinged a slight pink. Elsa was wondering just what Theo had learned about her after kissing her but it appeared Theo was done recounting her revelations. “Tell me what happened there.” Theo asked gently, moving a little closer. “At the palace, you were so desperate to cover everything up, to just repair the damage and move on. What happened there?”  
Elsa turned away. “I…I almost did it.” Theo didn’t say anything, she just waited for Elsa to continue. Elsa took a deep breath, finally feeling ready to say the words that had been haunting her for months. “I was ready to kill two men. I nearly did it.”  
“Was that the memory?” Theo asked. “The one you recalled when…?” She stopped, seeming suddenly to remember why that had not been brought up between them this night. Elsa looked away from her, her hands clasped tightly in her lap.   
“Did…did you?” There was no fear or resentment in her tone, simply a request to know if such a deed had been done.   
Elsa shook her head. “No. Thankfully.” Thankfully she hadn’t. “Someone…someone reminded me that I was not a monster. That I shouldn’t become one. And I stopped.”  
A warm hand covered hers, loosening the strangle-hold her own hands had locked themselves in. Elsa looked up and found herself staring into red eyes that burned with understanding. “Taking a life is never easy, no matter the circumstance. Especially if it is someone you don’t really know.”  
It took Elsa several seconds to ponder the true meaning of those words. “Theo…have you…?”  
The silence was confirmation enough.  
“It never leaves you.” Theo said, staring at Elsa. “It hangs over you forever, whether you meant to do it or not. You hear their screams forever.” She let go of Elsa’s hand and sat back against the rock, hand gripping her head. “It makes you feel like a monster.”  
Elsa reached out and firmly took the warm hands in her own cool ones, tugging them back down. “You’re not a monster.”   
Theo regarded her uneasily, as if she expected there to be a rebuttal to follow that statement.   
Elsa ran a thumb over the knuckles in her grip. “Theo…I think you’re…incredible. You care so deeply for Scara and you…you’re a great leader, you always think of others first. You protect what you care about. So even if you hate your powers, even if you think you’re a monster, I know you’re not. Scara and Garret and Goren know it too. They speak very highly of you. They look up to you. You’re not a monster to us, you’re a good person.”   
Theo looked down, her lips pursed at Elsa’s praises. “I don’t hate my powers.” She admitted. “Maybe I did, but not now.”  
“What changed?” Elsa asked.   
Theo raised her head, her grip tightened ever so slightly. “They…brought me here…” Elsa found each breath to be a labor, as if the forest had decided to steal all the air for itself and leave none for the two sitting by the fire.   
“A little nobody living in the woods and her majesty, Queen Elsa of Arendelle.” Theo continued. “We’d never have met if Branna and Isen hadn’t chosen us.”  
Momentarily distracted by the sound of Theo saying her complete title without a hint of distain, Elsa fought to find a suitable reply. “You never know…we could have.”  
Theo shook her head slightly. “We never would have gotten this close…how many commoners do you interact with on a daily basis, Your Highness?”  
Elsa smirked. “A good number.”  
“And how many of those have you kissed?”  
Elsa felt her heart stop. Neither one of them had noticed that the fire had once again shrunken to a tiny flickering candle. Neither one saw the ice forming sharp, hanging crystals in the air around them. They were once again locked together. Blue staring into red. Red staring right back.  
“You kissed me…” Elsa breathed in retort. The hands in hers were burning hot.   
Theo’s lips parted ever so slightly. “That’s debatable.” She said in barely a whisper.  
It was happening again, Elsa realized. The pull, the unconscious attraction that kept drawing them together, that made their thoughts shut down and their actions take over. Sometime during their previous conversation, it had snuck up on them and fallen over them like a thick blanket.  
She could see the look of utter desire in Theo’s eyes, how much she wanted to just lean in and kiss her again. The grip of their hands tightened, gazes went dark as they leaned closer, noses brushing, tiny sparks and fractals of ice snapping and shimmering along their skin.  
Elsa had forgotten her nightmares, she had forgotten the shame and confusion of the past few weeks as she fought these thoughts. Her heart was light, freed from the confessions she’d been holding back and her mind was full of stories about another like her. It was a good feeling, the kind of feeling she had tasted once before on a frozen fjord, hugging her still-alive sister. Now it consumed her entirely, wanting to claim her forever. She was ready to surrender, to feel those lips against hers again and lose herself in the feeling of ice and fire coming together once more.  
So the fact that Theo leaned away snapped Elsa back to reality like a slap in the face. She lurched backwards, blushing a deep crimson as she realized what they had almost just done. Again.  
“It’s late…”Theo said, looking away from Elsa again. “we have a long way to go tomorrow.”  
Elsa stood up quickly, very glad that the darkness would hid her blush. “Right.”  
Confusion swirled within Elsa as snow swirled without. She picked her way back to her snowbank and lowered herself onto it.   
Nothing made sense. If these feelings were just a result of Isen and Branna’s romantic history, then how did she feel them without Isen being awake? Was it just Branna making Theo say those things? But that didn’t explain the jealousy earlier, the overwhelming desire of just a few moments ago.   
And tonight, tonight they had actually opened up to one another, shared histories they would have rather forgotten or buried. And Elsa couldn’t deny what she had started to see in Theo: someone just like her. Someone who needed saving and deserved love.  
But…did she…could she actually really like Theonia?   
And if Theo liked her back, why was she the one pulling away every time?  
Elsa laid back but her eyes refused to close. Everything about this was terrifying and not just because of the political and social implications. She tried to curl up comfortably in her snow and coax herself to sleep. Even though the cold didn’t bother her, something about the makeshift bed just seemed too flimsy, like there was nothing solid for her to support her as she fell asleep, plagued by her thoughts and her returning nightmares.  
Would be better with someone else beside me… She decided, convincing herself she had wished for Anna in that moment rather than the girl sleeping on the far side of the rock.   
There was a quiet whooshing sound and the light against Elsa’s eyelids dimmed considerably as Theo smothered the fire in preparation for sleep.   
Well, regardless of who felt what for whom, it didn’t mean they couldn’t be friends, officially. Right? After tonight, there was no denying they had finally reached a certain understanding.  
“Theo?” Elsa called out timidly.  
A body shifted on the other side. “What, Elsa?” She called, sounding annoyed.   
“I’m sorry.”  
“For what?”  
“For breaking your nose when we first met.”  
There was a pause, filled only by the quiet snap of dying embers. Then Elsa heard a quiet chuckle. She burrowed deeper into her miniature snowbank and began to drift off glad that the water had finally passed under that particular bridge. As sleep started to claim her, she heard Theo say in barely more than a whisper.  
“I’m sorry too.”  
***  
I was Alone.   
But that was alright, I was used to the Lonely. In the Lonely was the Cold and the Cold was my friend. It came to me in the Lonely. It sang to me and rocked me to sleep. It was part of me. It chased the Lonely away.   
Mother was calling. She was Far Away.   
I ran, faster than I thought possible. This time the Cold accompanied me, it swirled around my steps, making no sound as I ran. Closer…and closer…the Lonely was following, nipping at my heels.  
Blurs of Colors and Places. Echoes of Lonely everywhere. Protected by the Cold.  
There was Mother. Not Lonely. In one arm, she held an Other. I stopped running. The Lonely crashed into me and passed right through me. It let me go. Without a fight.  
Mother looked at me. Her hand came towards me. Beckoning.   
“Come here…”  
I crawled across until I reached Mother. And the Other. The Other who had banished the Lonely. “This is her, dear daughter…” Said Mother in her Voice. “your little sister.”  
I stretched out a hand, fingers brushing Other’s. My sister. My precious, precious sister.  
The Cold became snow. I Became the Cold.  
No more room for Lonely.   
Lonely’s power was broken but the Cold remained. Sister had no Cold. No Lonely. In Her was a gentle warm. A flicker of Fading. A burst of Other. The Ending.  
Sister opened her eyes and Looked at me. Sister would never feel the Lonely. Not while I Watched her.  
I will always protect you.   
***  
So why haven’t you this time?  
***  
“Stop. Stop please! Just stop!” Elsa awoke suddenly, blinking in surprise at the voice that had interrupted her first pleasant dream in weeks.   
“It’s been five months and I haven’t folded, you can’t make me…! Urrghhh!” Elsa sat up, peering into the darkness. The fire had long since gone out but the tiny embers that remained were pulsating with tiny blasts of heat.   
Only one person could affect fire like that.  
“Let me sleep…please…please!”  
The embers briefly flared back into flames and Elsa made out a hunched form on the far side of the fire. “I don’t know.” Theo snarled, gripping her head tightly in both hands. “And I wont. You can’t make me!”  
There was a choking sound, as if Theo had bitten her own tongue. Elsa saw her double over, curling in on herself as if in immense pain. There was no one else around. Theo was talking to no one.   
The summer host, drew a heavy gasping breath and pulled herself back into a crouch. “…why did you pick me then?” She cried desperately. “Why me?”  
“Theo?” The woman stiffened, sitting rigidly upright. “Is everything okay?” Elsa asked.  
Theo half turned to face her. In the dim light, Elsa could make out a small smile on her face. “Everything’s fine. Go to sleep.”  
Elsa was not convinced. “Who are you talking to?”  
Theo only gestured at the air above her head as if to indicate the fire spirit that sometimes sat there. “Be glad Isen isn’t awake.” She told the queen grimly. “Having arguments in your own head is never fun…”  
“Arguments? Sounds more like she’s torturing you.”  
Theo didn’t answer. She stood up and stepped out of the light, leaving Elsa staring at embers that had all but died. “Go back to sleep, Elsa.” Said a voice in the glow.  
And amazingly, Elsa found she was able to.  
***  
After walking furiously for nearly a quarter of an hour in circles around the rock, Theo did not curl up next to the fire again and try to sleep. Instead she crossed to the pile of cloth at the edge of the overhang that was Garret’s sleeping space.  
“I know you heard all that…”  
“I don’t know what you mean.” Muttered the pile of cloth, innocently. “But she must be glad you’re finally opening up to her. I’m sure she cares for you just as much as you pretend not to care for her to the rest of us.”  
Theo clenched her fist. “Don’t say a word about her Garret,” She whispered through her teeth. “she and I can never be together, not if Branna gets her way.”  
Garret shifted but did not roll over. “Does that mean you’re going to give in?” He asked.   
“Never.”   
Garret sighed. “It’s getting harder though, isn’t it?” He observed.  
“Everyday.” Her voice shook at that word.  
Garret spoke quietly but his voice seemed to echo around the clearing. “So why not just give in?”   
Theo did not answer.   
“You deserve some happiness in all of this.” Garret told his oldest friend. “Perhaps you can find it in her.”  
“No. I cant.”  
“Really? It seemed like you were pretty happy just talking to her before. What’s holding you back? Really?”  
“Branna.” The name was spoken with distain.   
Garret rolled over and looked up at Theo. Black eyes met red in the dark. “I thought she was the one who wanted you together?”  
Theo lowered her head. “She does. And that is precisely the problem.”  
“How?”  
“She doesn’t just want me to join with Elsa.” A pained look crossed her face. The spirit was preventing her from saying more. Theo fell to her knees in front of Garret, biting her lip. “Make her stop…please. Just for a bit?” She pleaded gently.  
Garret flinched but remained steadfast. “You know what that does to you.”  
“I need peace, Garret. Please.” She was fighting back tears now, months of torment and pain weakening her and weighing her down. “I can handle one night of nightmares.”  
The Guardian was silent for a moment. “Come here.” He finally said, opening his arms to her.   
Theo sat and slowly lowered herself until her head was on his chest. His heart thudded comfortingly in her ears. She felt him gently press a point on her lower back, then one on her left shoulder. Branna went grudgingly silent. The emptiness in her head was glorious.   
She let out a shaky breath. “Thank you.” Theo made to get up again, to return to her spot by the fire but Garret gently tightened his hold.   
“I only suppressed her for a few hours.” He told her. “You should go to sleep. I’ll keep watch.” Theo resisted only for a second before her resolve crumbled. It had been years since she’d let him hold her like this. It had been even longer since she’d let herself feel comfort from the embrace. Garret was warm. Not her own fire, just another’s heat, warmth. Life. Theo let herself give in to the comfort of his arms, to sink into that protection and forget the horrors of the surrounding world. It would be so nice to sleep through the night…for once.   
She felt his hand gently stroking her arm. “We’re not alone.” Garret said. “Not anymore. Never again.”  
She knew that was true. It wasn’t just the two of them against the world anymore. “We” no longer consisted of two outcast kids struggling to survive an unfair destiny. Now it was the four of them. Soon to be five. So long as Autumn cooperated.  
“What would I do without you Garret?” Theo mumbled sleepily, her eyes closing.   
He smiled and gently kissed the top of her head. “You’ll never need to find out.” He promised. “Now stop worrying and go to sleep. Tomorrow, we storm Autumn’s castle.”


	12. Storming Autumn's Castle

Kristoff had been Acting Regent of Arendelle for all of twelve hours and already he was at the end of his rope.   
He shoved aside his empty mug and held his head in his hands, reveling in his first moment of peace since Anna had left last night. Even though the gates had been closed for the night, he somehow still found himself swamped with everything from grievances about a lost grain shipment to complaints about Olaf stealing kindling and flowers from local venders. On top of that, the assassin he’d been planning to pummel had somehow gotten hold of a guard’s sword and instead of escaping, had impaled himself on it. So much for vengeance. Kristoff had only gotten to sleep a few hours ago. Now it was dawn and he was unsuccessfully warding off a headache induced by too little sleep with strong tea courtesy of Gerda.   
“I was wrong…” He groaned to the empty kitchen. “Royals have it much worse than us commoners.” He rubbed his eyes, trying to motivate himself to go upstairs and face his first full day as Regent. He failed.   
Kristoff sank further into his chair, sighing heavily. Anna had left last night just before sunset after quickly and bluntly telling him that they were expecting. Then with a quick, apologetic kiss on his cheek, she had hopped on Sven and set off in pursuit of her run-away sister. Again. It had been all Kristoff could do to throw her his tunic and cap as she dashed off. Only once she had vanished into the woods did the full weight of her words hit him.   
“A baby…” His hands were trembling slightly. “We’re having a baby…” He pushed his eyes deep into his palms, making painful stars erupt in his vision.   
He was about to be a father.   
“Oh gods…”  
He wasn’t ready to be a father.  
He took long, steady breaths in the solitude of the kitchen, desperately trying to keep himself together as his fears overwhelmed him. Kristoff didn’t remember his father. Or even his mother for that matter. Sometimes he doubted that he’d even had them. For as long as he could remember, he’d been on his own with his buddy Sven. Then he’d been raised by trolls who saw humans as a petty, if, adorable species direly in need of their love counseling.   
Not a great past for a father to have.   
“I cant even run a kingdom on my own for one night, how can I be a father?” Kristoff moaned into his hands. Usually, he was alright with being alone but right now, he really wished he had someone to talk to. Someone to understand his predicament.   
Removing his face from his hands, Kristoff looked around, trying to confirm that he was indeed, alone in the kitchen.  
He cleared his throat. “You’ll do better at that Kristoff,” He said in Sven’s voice. “Running a kingdom and raising a kid have nothing in common.”  
“Oh yeah?” He answered in his own voice. “Both need constant attention, require a certain mindset and I have no experience in either case!”  
“But no one said you had to… ah forget it…” Kristoff said, giving up. He slumped back in his chair, missing Sven immensely. The reindeer always knew just what to say. “It’s not the same. And geez…even in my head he’s still insufferable…”   
Sunlight began to peek through the low window above the tables and Kristoff took that as his sign to get on with his day. He stood, gulped the rest of his tea and made his way up the stairs towards the throne room. Apparently, according to Kai, he’d need to meet with several advisors today armed with a believable excuse as to why Elsa was missing yet again. Then he had lunch with a visiting dignitary and an open audience for the townsfolk who were still a little shaken up by the impending winter and yesterday’s assassination attempt.   
Nothing he knew how to do. Nothing that would be interesting enough to clear his mind of his worries. Only a few hours out on the ice might help with that. Not that that would be happening anytime soon.   
He crossed the entrance hall, hands shoved deep in his pockets, frowning uneasily.  
"I just wish Anna had talked to me before she had to go again…"  
As if on cue, the front doors to the castle banged open and in stalked his wife, and his two best friends along with a cool blast of autumn air.  
Any relief Kristoff had at seeing them so soon was dampened by two things: the absence of Elsa and the look on Anna’s face.   
It had not gone well at all.   
“Anna?” He asked, heading over to her. “Are you okay? What happened?”  
She brushed past him. “Fine. Out of my way.” Her face was like a storm-cloud. An angry, strawberry-blonde thunderstorm about to break.   
Kristoff stepped aside but followed her as she stalked down the hall towards the staircase. “Where are you going?”   
“Library.” She replied curtly.  
“Great. Okay. Why?”  
Anna didn’t answer him but instead took to the stairs determinedly.   
Sven moaned and nudged Kristoff with his antler. He paused just long enough to scratch him behind an ear.  
“What buddy?”  
Sven just looked at him with wide, determined eyes.  
The message was clear. Talk to her.  
Kristoff nodded and gave him a little smile, glad to have his best bud back and Sven ushered Olaf gently back outside. Taking the stairs two at a time, Kristoff jogged to catch up to his wife.   
“Anna.” He called out, making her stop and face him as they reached the first floor. “We need to talk.”  
“We’re talking now.” Anna replied, turning away to continue her way towards the library.   
Kristoff grabbed her by the arm, tugging her back towards him. “No, Anna. Like really, really talk.”  
Anna was quiet, still not facing him.   
“You tell me we’re having a…a baby and then you just run off.” Kristoff said, trying to sound gentle instead of reprimanding.   
He saw Anna tense slightly. “I had to go after Elsa.” She said simply.   
He softly let go of her, letting his hand brush comfortingly down her arm. “I think there was a little more to it than that.” He said softly.  
“What do you mean?” Anna replied, not moving even though he was no longer holding her back. “She left, I went after her.” One arm had drifted across her middle, fingers brushing the hilt of her sword.  
“Are you sure you were just following her? Or were you also running away?” Anna flinched. “Anna, running away after someone who’s running away doesn’t mean you’re not running away.” The words had barely left his lips before Anna collided with him, burying her face in his shoulder.   
Anna clutched her husband tightly, tears that she had clearly been holding back for hours pouring forth. “I’m scared Kristoff.” She wailed. “And now Elsa’s gone and I just…I cant…”  
Wordlessly, he wrapped his arms around her in a hug. She clutched at his shirt, crying silently into his shoulder. For a moment, he let her cry, relaxing at the feel of her in his arms again. The knowledge that she was here and he was no longer alone.  
He gently stroked her hair. “Elsa’s not gone…she’s coming back.”  
“How do you know?” Anna mumbled into his chest.   
“She came back last time.” Kristoff pointed out.   
Anna leaned back and looked up at him, her eyes red and shimmering in tears. “That’s just because you went and got her!”  
“Do you really think Elsa’s about to just leave you behind? Do you really think she’d run away again?”  
Anna bit her lip, looking so dejected and upset that Kristoff immediately felt a hot surge of protectiveness gush through him. “I don’t know.” Anna whimpered.   
“Yes you do, Anna.” He gently lifted her chin. “Think about everything that’s changed in the last few months, everything Elsa’s done for you. For us. For Arendelle.”   
Anna sniffed pitifully. “But…but this time…she meant it!” She cried. “She told me she couldn’t tell me! She…she doesn’t trust me anymore!”  
In all the time he’d known her, he’d never seen her break so completely. Seeing the woman he loved so upset and so hurt broke something inside of him.   
Kristoff pulled her close again, letting her bury her sorrow in his embrace. He could feel her gentle sobs sending vibrations through his core, rattling the painful inadequacy he felt. “Elsa loves you, Anna.” He assured her. “She’s always loved you.”  
They were both silent for a moment, Anna’s sobs slowly dying down to whimpers and hiccups. The whole time, Kristoff just waited patiently, providing unyielding support and occasional gentle kisses to her forehead, trying to make both of them feel better. “Why wont Elsa tell me what’s going on?” Anna murmured into his chest after a long while.   
“She didn’t want you to know.”  
Anna looked up at him but didn’t remove her head from his chest. “Why?”  
Kristoff recalled the conversation he’d had with the queen several months ago in the mountains. “She thinks you not knowing will protect you.” He said honestly.  
Apparently, there was something unbelievable in how he said those words because Anna roughly pushed him away and folded her arms stubbornly.   
“I don’t need her to protect me!” She said, her damp eyes flashing angrily. “She and I have been through this over and over!”  
“That’s not going to stop her from trying.” Kristoff tenderly reached for his wife’s hand, tugging it away from her chest. Their bangles grew together. “Anna, she locked herself away from the world for fourteen years hiding these powers because she believed she was keeping you safe. You’ll always be her little sister. She’ll always do whatever it takes to keep you safe.”  
Anna deflated, if only slightly. “Elsa needs me too.” She said, completely obstinate. “She never seems to realize that she needs me just as much as I need her. She needs my protection from assassins and men and…”  
Kristoff raised an eyebrow. “From men? What, like her suitors?”  
Anna blushed crimson. “I never said that…” She mumbled.   
Kristoff took a deep breath, his headache threatening to return. “Anna, please don’t tell me you’re sabotaging potential husbands for Elsa. Because I can tell you that if she finds out, she will not be pleased.”  
His attempt at humor only seemed to make Anna more upset. “Wont matter anyway.” Anna mumbled, crestfallen. “She’ll hardly ask my permission before marrying someone. She wont even tell me about these ‘secret friends’ of hers she’s run away with.”   
Kristoff paused. “The people who took her last summer?” He asked.  
Anna nodded.   
“What did they look like again?”  
“There was a girl and an older boy.” Anna described, pulled her hand out of his to gesture only semi-helpfully. “The man was about this tall with curly black hair and he carried a large axe. The girl was shorter, like this and she had long blonde hair down to here. I spoke to them briefly after Elsa was attacked but she sent me away to keep me from spying on them.”  
Kristoff didn’t recall either of those two, nor did the descriptions match that of the mysterious girl from the ice fields of his childhood. But that only further proved Grand Pabbie’s point. There were others like Elsa, others that had found her. Others that wanted to take her away from Arendelle and lock her in a stone prison again. Away from the world. Away from Anna.   
And he knew neither sister would survive that.  
“Elsa wouldn’t say anything when I caught up to her.” Anna was saying, folding her arms around herself. “And I didn’t see anyone with her. I just wish I could find out more!”  
Kristoff was still silent, an idea forming in his mind. “Anna, there might be a way to learn more.”  
She turned to look at him, surprised. “How?”  
“The trolls will know.”  
Anna brightened incredibly, her smile rivaling the sunlight pouring in through the window down the hallway. The effect on Kristoff was even akin to that of a plant in bright sunlight. “You’re right!” Anna declared, her previous dejectedness forgotten. “Pabbie knew about Elsa’s powers and how to cure my frozen heart; he must know why she’s acting so strange. Maybe he even knows who those other two are!”   
She clapped him hard on the shoulder and moved past him to head back down the stairs. “Let’s go harness up Sven! We can be there by tomorrow morning if we leave right now…”  
She was stopped from descending by her husband’s firm hand on her shoulder.   
“No Anna, you’re not going.”  
Kristoff knew he should have braced himself or at least led into that gently. But it wouldn’t have mattered. His wife’s reaction would have floored him either way.   
“Is this how it’s going to be every time?!” Anna exploded, screaming so loudly the windowpane and a suit of armor next to them rattled. “’Stay here Anna, don’t get into trouble Anna, I’ll be back soon Anna…’ When do I get to be the one making the journey?”  
Kristoff waited a full three seconds after the echo from Anna’s outburst had faded (and he’d stopped fearing that she’d try to attack him) before gently responding.  
“Anna, I’m sorry but I need some time with my family. My other family. A lot is going on and I need to clear my head. To think about…everything.” He risked a glance down at her stomach, even though he knew she hadn’t even started to show. Anna followed his gaze and self-consciously folded her arms around herself. “I’ll go alone,” Kristoff continued, “I’ll be back in two days at most.”  
Anna’s heartbroken expression almost, almost made him reconsider. “But…but…Kristoff, I don’t want to be alone here, not again.”   
Kristoff’s heart tightened. “I know, believe me, I know.” He pulled her close again, this time as much for his benefit as her own. “I’m scared too Anna, so scared.” He admitted, feeling a gush of relief at finally saying the words out loud. He could sense her surprise at the admission in how she squirmed slightly in his arms. “I’m scared of what’s happening to Elsa, I’m scared of running a kingdom on my own, I’m terrified of being an inadequate father but you know what helps me get past all that and be brave?”  
Anna shook her head into his chest, hiccupping slightly.  
Kristoff smiled. “You. Knowing that I’ll have you here when I’m scared. Knowing that I don’t have to be alone. Knowing that together, we can face anything.”  
Anna softly pushed herself away from him, looking at the floor. “Kristoff, I…I’m sorry. For yelling at you…that was childish…I…”  
He brushed her bangs back from her face, making her look at him. “You want to be doing something, I know. You want to be helping Elsa.”  
Anna nodded.   
“Arendelle needs a ruler right now.” Kristoff continued. “Elsa cant be worrying about her kingdom while she’s away.” He smiled reassuringly at her. “She wont worry if you’re here in charge.” Anna would certainly handle the royal duties ten times better than he ever could.  
Anna groaned, throwing one hand dramatically over her face. “Does this mean more paperwork? Because I swear, if I see one more report about tax levies, I’m burning down the treasury.”  
Kristoff laughed. “Believe me, I know how you feel. How in the world Elsa handles all this on a daily basis is beyond me.”  
Anna peeked through her fingers. “She’s special…and very dedicated.”  
Kristoff smiled brilliantly. “That she is.”  
And because he couldn’t help himself, he kissed the top of her head. “We’re going to get her back, Anna.” He promised with everything he had in him, his lips caressing her skin. “Don’t worry.”  
“I cant help it.”  
He pulled away from her, offering her a reassuring smile. “I know. But trust me. Everything will turn out okay. We’ll be together again and Elsa will be home for good before you know it.”  
“Kristoff…” He looked down at the soft, pleading tone in her voice. Anna was wringing her hands but determinedly holding his gaze. “I…I need you too. You make me brave too. And if I have to be alone for awhile…I’ll do my best to be strong for both of us.” She reached out and gently took his hand. “No matter what happens, we wont face anything alone, right?”  
Kristoff felt like the luckiest man alive. He kissed her long and hard, his hand drifting down to rest on her stomach. “I love you…Both of you.”  
Anna looked up at him, unshed tears shimmering in her eyes. “I’m sorry Kristoff.”   
“No, I’m sorry I have to leave you again.” He gently kissed her on the forehead again, taking a deep, calming breath for both of them. When he stepped away, he held both her hands in his own. “I’ll be back within two days.” He promised. “Then we’ll have a nice long talk about everything. You, me and Elsa.” This time, he wasn’t going to sugar-coat his words with Elsa about abandoning her sister. Elsa needed to understand the danger she put everyone in by making Anna feel unwanted. The pain she caused her little sister by pushing her away.  
“Elsa and I need to talk.” Anna agreed, her voice uncharacteristically dejected. She looked up at her husband, her eyes glazed over with demons he thought they’d killed. “Bad things happen when Elsa and I keep secrets from each other…”  
Kristoff nodded. He’d seen it happen. And he never wanted to see it again.  
***  
Within the hour, Kristoff and Sven were galloping as quickly as the tired reindeer could towards the Valley of the Living Rock. Olaf had wanted to come but Kristoff made him stay behind this time. Anna would need him for comfort if things didn’t get back to normal soon.   
Arendelle vanished softly behind him in the morning light as Sven took the steeper trail up the mountain. The familiar woods were calm and silent with the breaking day, full of rules he knew and obstacles and expectations he had spent a lifetime learning. Kristoff breathed easier as the castle and the weight of royalty fell behind him. But still his heart was heavy with the looming uncertainty and dread he was galloping towards.   
He had to talk to Pabbie again. There was something else going on here, something deeper and darker than the simple story of the cycle he’d been told. Although they hadn’t talked about it since that day at Isen Lake, he saw it in Elsa’s eyes, in the way she moved like she knew her days were numbered. A similar feeling had been in the eyes of that girl he’d once seen fall through the ice. Like the end was coming, or at least something just as bad. The old troll owed him at least the chance to ask his questions. And then, whatever answers he got, he was going straight to his wife with. It was time she knew.   
He couldn’t keep a promise to Elsa that was killing all three of them like this.   
Anna needed her sister. Elsa needed Anna. Kristoff wanted both of them to be happy and safe.   
He thought back to his wife, to the secret she had share with him yesterday. The secret that was growing inside her this very minute.   
Kristoff tightened his grip on Sven’s mane. A baby. Their child.   
When the time came, he wanted his child to be safe as well. From whatever the danger was.  
***  
Anna called an emergency meeting. It was all she could do to help Elsa right now. And she had to be doing something. Something other than reading reports on late autumn fish exports and grain harvests. Otherwise her threat of burning something down would become a promise.  
Ichtaca was the first to arrive. He slid through the secret door and offered Anna a smile that she couldn’t help but return. The boy had a way of making her feel safer by just his mere presence. She knew even without him saying so that he’d be willing to protect her or Elsa from any danger. As always, he was politely quiet as they waited together.   
Dagrun arrived next, smelling of fish and cheap ale. “I was on shift by the Fish-tail.” He explained, naming the pub by the Arendelle docks. His clothes and hair glistened with fish slime and spit. “I’ve been stuck in a fish barrel for the past hour staking out any newcomers to see if the assassin comin’ after Elsa was here with friends.” He explained, sticking a finger in his ear and wiggling it incessantly.   
Anna wrinkled her nose against the smell coming off of him. “Was he?” She asked.  
Dagrun shook his head, a few flashing scales tumbling from his hair. “Nope. Looks like he was alone.”  
Contrary to her usual habit of extreme punctuality, Reba did not show up in the room. After several minutes of uncertainty, Anna asked Dagrun and Ichtaca her whereabouts but they said they hadn’t seen her all day. “Sometimes she just disappears for a couple of hours.” Ichtaca said, shrugging. “She’s an escaped slave, so maybe this has something to do with festivals of her home country?”  
Anna hadn’t known this about Reba. The girl kept far too much to herself. “She was a slave? Where?”  
The boys exchanged a look.   
“We dunno…” Ichtaca finally admitted.  
“Never bothered to ask.” Dagrun said. “And you know her, she doesn’t really talk much…keeps to herself…”  
That much was true. Anna had been trying to make progress with the girl, certainly. She’d even accidentally made the young Informer smile once but Reba remained an enigma that no one had been able to crack.   
“Right, well, let’s get started.” Anna began. Reba would just have to get caught up next time. “I’m sure you’re aware that Elsa left last night.” She told the boys.  
The boys nodded.   
“I tried to follow her,” Anna continued. “but she caught me and…sent me back. So I want to know everything that happened here last night, anything I might have missed, particularly in regard to our guests.”  
The boys looked at each other, silently deciding who should go first.  
“Did anyone see the man and girl who took Elsa away enter the castle or at the festival?” Anna prompted.  
Ichtaca  
nodded slowly. “No one saw them come into Arendelle, with the festival there were too many people to keep track of…but one of my boys in the kitchens saw them come into the castle at dawn just after the gates opened. They jus’ walked right in and wandered around. They left not long before you did that day, headed for the festival.”  
Anna swallowed hard. She had been so close to them. She nodded her thanks to the older boy, wishing Reba were here. She knew Reba had to have seen something that day. She’d been too close to the action to possibly miss it.  
“What about the prince?” She asked her Informers. “Any news of him?”  
“The prince jus’ received a letter from his brother.” Dagrun piped up.  
“Which one?” Anna asked, even though she already knew the only one it could be. The only one that would matter.   
“Hans.” Dagrun replied. “Intercepted it myself and delivered it to ‘im late last night.”  
Anna leaned forward over the desk, the pommel of her sword hitting the wood with a dull thunk. She hadn’t removed it since she’d returned. She didn’t plan on removing it again until Elsa was back. “What did it say?” She asked the boy, trying not to sound as desperate as she felt.  
He shook his head. “Dunno, didn’t get a chance to open it but when I delivered it, he acted like it was some huge secret. Practically threw Lord Wilfred and me out of the room.”  
This was news to Anna. “Lord Wilfred?” She recalled the somewhat creepy old man and his irritatingly dashing prince (who had stood a little too close to Elsa) from her wedding reception. “What was he doing talking to Christian that late at night?”  
“They were exchangin’ info again.” Dagrun told her, as if it were obvious.  
Anna frowned. “Again?”  
“They met the night of your wedding, discussin’ Elsa and her powers.” Dagrun told her. “Oh yeah, and they said somthin’ ‘bout Arendelle being richer than they were lead to believe.” His eyes suddenly lit up as if he were remembering something very important. “Oh yeah! And Lord Wilfred said this:” He cleared his throat, gathered his thoughts and slowly repeated what he’d heard: ‘In the land o’ ice, where the water meets the…stones of old, the night comes alive with lights and…power. There, it begins. There, all dreams be found. A treasure greater than knowledge an’ wealth. Winter-Summer, Life-Death. All are there, in perfect balance…not a one alone. The daughters have come.’”   
His report was met with stunned silence.   
“…the daughters…” Anna repeated, feeling like she had been punched in the gut. She held a hand to her forehead, her mind racing impossibly fast with these strange words, a possibility that should have been all too clear to her.   
Others.   
There were others like Elsa.  
Anna had never considered the possibility that people like Elsa could exist elsewhere. Elsa’s powers were just…well, they were Elsa. As soon as she found out about them, it just seemed right, like a piece of her sister that had been hiding in plain sight all along was suddenly polished to a fine gleam.   
Elsa embodied her gift. She was as calm and regal as the falling snow and as beautiful and powerful as a howling blizzard. Even the way she moved: drifting slowly and purposefully like softly falling snow or running like a driving shard of ice on the wind…   
But who could the others have been? If they had power, it didn’t show in them quite so obviously as it did in her sister. The boy, if he had any power, could have been fire she supposed, although he seemed far too pleasant and gentle…and the girl? Anna had no idea what to make of the strange blonde who had come to take Elsa away. What was her power, if any? She was bubbly and lively certainly but there was a darkness there too…  
“Princess?”  
Anna glanced back at her Informers. The boys were looking at her curiously, confused as to why their report had rendered her speechless. Her eyes narrowed.   
“Why didn’t you tell me this sooner?” She asked them.  
They took a step back, afraid of the hints of anger in her voice. She’d never been angry with them.  
“We didn’t want to worry you, miss.” Ichtaca said politely. “It was your wedding day.”  
Anna was about to reprimand them, to remind them that she had specifically instructed all of them to inform her of such important developments, especially ones regarding Elsa or Prince Christian as soon as humanly possible when a small wave of nausea passed through her, stopping her short.  
She placed her hand on her stomach and closed her eyes in discomfort, wondering why on Earth she would be nauseous. She hadn’t eaten since…  
She sat up in alarm, her eyes flying open. She hadn’t eaten since last night. Panic raced through her.  
Oh gods, the baby!  
Between chasing after Elsa, being upset about being sent home, seeing Kristoff off and calling this meeting, she’d completely forgotten for a few hours that another life depended entirely on her.  
Despair crashed over her. She was a terrible mother. She’d neglected her own child before it was even born.  
She wanted to cry but seemed to lack the physical stamina to do so. Suddenly she felt weak, so very weak and alone. She wanted Kristoff back, holding her tight and telling her it would be alright. She wanted Elsa gently stroking her hand, reminding her of all the reasons why she’d be a great mother.   
A thought occurred to Anna that she rather wished she hadn’t considered: Would this child in her now exist if the Informers had told her of the meeting on her wedding night?  
She knew the answer and it tore her apart.  
Anna swallowed a pitiful sob and placed her free hand over her mouth. She would have abandoned her husband on their marriage bed and left to handle the problem had she known. And he would have let her go.  
Anna felt terrible. She had been neglecting her husband with this whole project, never thinking of him in the grand scheme of things. Every night she’d spent caring for Elsa instead of sleeping next to him, every time she’d brushed him away over some Informer’s concern or trying to get Elsa to open up to her.  
Since they’d been married, they’d hardly spent any time together.  
And he’d never said a word.   
Because he knew how much this meant to her, Anna realized. To both of them. And he was content to let her do whatever she needed to keep her kingdom and her sister safe. No matter how much it might hurt him in the process.   
Anna blinked back tears and wrapped the hand on her stomach around her hip.   
“An’ we told Elsa.” Dagrun continued timidly, still sounding worried that Anna was upset with them. “We thought she would tell you?”  
Anna looked at him. Of course they would. Because they were just children and to them, her and Elsa were a team. In their minds, Elsa would have told her the next day, the two of them talking this through and thinking of a way to corner the Southern Isles prince and flush him out.  
But Elsa would always keep her safe. Elsa had wanted her to have that perfect night with Kristoff as well. So she hadn’t told her. She’d carried that secret as well.  
And despite being angry with Elsa for once again hiding from her, Anna’s heart warmed and just a fraction of her guilt faded away. Amazing. Even when both of them were away, Kristoff and her sister still managed to make her feel important. To make her feel loved. Not alone.  
She had to be brave for them.  
Anna’s hand fell away from her face. She would be better, she had to be. Not just for Kristoff now but for her child in the future. And for Elsa. Always for Elsa. As soon as they were all back together, she would make it up to them. The hand on her hip trembled. All of them.  
Anna straightened up, her confidence returning with her newfound dedication. “Right, we need to step up observation.” She told the boys. “If Christian’s in contact with Hans, it cant be good.” She turned to the elder. “Ichtaca, I want someone on him at all hours and see if you can find that letter. Have someone tail Lord Wilfred and his prince as well. We need to know what they’re planning.”  
Ichtaca nodded and slipped out the door to the rest of the castle. He’d sneak down to the servant’s quarters and don a page’s outfit, alerting the ears among the castle staff of the princess’ new plan.   
Anna turned to the remaining Informer, her gaze very serious.   
“Dagrun, I have something very important for you to do.”   
He smiled broadly, nodding, happy that she no longer seemed upset with them.  
Anna thought very carefully before giving him her instructions. “These…others that Prince Christian spoke of, I want you to find out everything he knows about them. Ask around, search his files, anything. I want to know who they are and what he wants with them.”  
Dagrun grinned, winked and then slipped back out the secret passageway. Anna sat back in her chair, finally feeling the tiniest bit better about being left behind yet again.  
Elsa may always be trying to keep her in the dark to keep her safe but Anna wasn’t that same little girl anymore. It was time to push the boundaries away, to hold a light up to the darkness and discover just what Elsa was trying to protect her from. It was time she fought the demons herself so Elsa didn’t have to and Kristoff didn’t have to pretend to be okay with it.  
Anna stood up, looking out the window towards the fjord. If Elsa wasn’t going to tell her, Anna was going to find out. No more closed doors. No more secrets. No more hurting.  
It was time for answers.  
***  
Elsa had always been afraid of the ocean.  
Not just since it had taken her parents. Even as a child, she had never particularly liked the huge body of water surrounding her kingdom. It wasn’t fear, exactly, more like a constant wariness of a potential enemy lurking just outside your home. The kind of enemy you cant destroy, only wait for it to decide if you are worth destroying or not. It was the worst kind of feeling.   
“You okay?”  
Elsa turned to Theo and tried to smile reassuringly. “Yeah…just…nervous.”   
Theo offered her a smile and one of her hands twitched like it wanted to pat Elsa’s shoulder. But she didn’t.   
Instead, Elsa felt Garret squeeze her shoulder reassuringly. “It’ll be fine.” He said soothingly. “Hopefully this will set everything right.”  
Elsa nodded, swallowing the lump of fear and focused on keeping their raft intact. The last thing they needed was a dip in the waves because she’d lost concentration again. Thankfully, she didn’t need to constantly rebuild it because with summer over, Theo wasn’t putting off any searing heat-waves today.   
She had slept remarkably well after talking to Theo, better than she had in weeks. It felt as if she’d left a great weight behind in that dark forest, giving her a burst of energy she hadn’t known since building her ice palace. Elsa glanced at the summer host out of the corner of her eye, wondering if Theo had been able to sleep after whatever her and Branna had been talking about. The dark circles under the girl’s eyes suggested she hadn’t but she seemed lighter, calmer somehow. For once, her expression held no hint of agitation or anger.   
Garret and Scara gave no indication of anxiety either: Garret’s hand resting lightly on the head of his axe and Scara stoically and silently steering the raft with an unrelenting breeze.  
The foursome had broken camp at dawn and had immediately set out across the remainder of the forest towards the shore. They had reached the beach by mid-morning and were now racing over the churning ocean on an ice raft, guided by one of Scara’s warm breezes. There was no land in sight, another cause for anxiety, but every so often, Theo would check a compass or mutter a few words to Branna and instruct Scara on how to correct their course. So they were definitely headed somewhere.   
The waves curled and crested several feet underneath them, as choppy and foaming as they came in storms but the sky overhead was clear. Still, Elsa couldn’t help but check the horizon every so often. It offered her neither the solace of land nor the dread of rough weather.   
“So…” Elsa began in an attempt to keep her mind off of the churning waves below them that had once swallowed her parents. “How does a Guardian know that that’s what they are?” She asked casually.  
She saw Theo tense slightly and Scara cock her head to the side but the person she had directed the question at had no visible reaction.  
“It’s not something that is physically proven.” Garret told her. “Nor did the Mother descend and decree that it was me. It’s just something you know.”  
“But how?” Elsa asked. “When did you become aware of it? Did you know as a child?”  
The Guardian sighed thoughtfully, seeming as if he were trying to recall something he only had a vague notion of. “Yes, I did know.” He admitted. “Deep down, in some part of me reincarnated by the Mother, I knew I was different. But until I looked into Theo’s eyes and recognized my first spirit, I didn’t have a name for what I was.”   
“So you didn’t know what you were all through your childhood?”  
Garret shrugged. “Honestly I don’t remember much of that time. Didn’t really leave an impression on me.” He said this as casually as one might discuss an animal they had seen wandering in the forest. “I was born, I grew, I wandered, I trained.”   
“But what about your family?” Elsa pressed.   
“I left.” He said this matter-of-factly, with no hint of importance or remorse. “My place was not with them.”  
Elsa had no more questions. She could not comprehend the idea of leaving her family so young, so indifferently. No matter how different she was, she’d always had a place with her family. She missed her family every day she was apart from them.  
“A Guardian is Called very early in life.” Theo explained, watching Elsa’s expression carefully. “The Mother reached out to him subconsciously and guided him to the place where he would train to defend us. It was Garret’s way of leaving a life he’d never been meant for so that he could discover the life he was born for.”  
Garret nodded in agreement. “It is said in many of the scriptures that a Guardian does not exist until they find their first host. Sure they are born and they train and grow but until they are reunited with the spirits they are sworn to protect, they never feel truly here. Truly alive. The first twelve years of my life were like that: endlessly wandering, wondering if I was truly alive or just…being.”   
The raft shook under them as Elsa tried to pull her thoughts back together. “But you just left your family?” She asked again.“Just like that?”  
Garret seemed confused by her confusion. “I wasn’t whole there, Elsa. For the first nine years of my life, I felt nothing, I experienced no joy or fulfillment.” He gazed into her eyes, trying to make her understand what he was saying. “Leaving was the first thing that ever triggered an emotional response in me. I finally felt like I was doing something worthwhile.” He offered her a comforting smile. “Then I found you all and my life had purpose. I found joy and fulfillment. The moment I recognized Branna, my life began.”  
Scara twitched suddenly and the platform fell several feet, breaking the crest of a wave and sending a wave of panic through Elsa. “We’re close.” Scara said in Livet’s voice as everyone righted themselves and shook the salty mist from their faces.   
They all glanced the direction she was pointing and caught sight of something.  
It began as a tiny speck on the horizon, so small and indistinct it could have been anything. But as they grew closer and the speck steadily enlarged, it quickly became clear that there was nothing else like this anywhere else in the world.  
“That’s it.” Theo said in a blank voice. “The island…”  
It was hardly the solace Elsa was seeking.   
The island itself was small and pretty nondescript: typical southern climate, rocky shore battered by waves, a few trees and a tiny river meeting the coast.   
The palace dominating it however, was awesome and terrifying.  
It rose like an obelisk from the center of the island, commanding the eye to gaze upon it, the heart to regard it with dread and acknowledge its power over what lay below it. Sharp pointy peaks and turrets rose like knife blades from thick mud-brown walls, piercing the sky and making it bleed. There were no windows or balconies, no sign that anyone was living there. For it was not a place of Life but of Death. Not a dwelling but a catacomb.  
What’s more, everything surrounding the place reeked of death. All the trees were bare and lifeless, sticks stuck in the ground. No undergrowth to speak of except piles of decaying leaves. Nothing moved on the island. No birds flew over it, even the waves seemed to slow somewhat as they approached the shores. Heavy, dark clouds hung over it that seemed unmoved by wind.  
The utter and complete stillness was beautiful and shocking.   
Seeing it filled Elsa with chilling trepidation.   
“it’s exactly like my vision…” Theo whispered in a small voice. Her fists clenched tightly, trying to stop herself from shaking. “Horrible...”  
“We’re going in there.” Scara decreed and the wind suddenly picked up, shooting them right at the terrifying sight at a blinding speed.  
Elsa could make no comments; she was too focused on making sure they didn’t fall into the sea as Scara sent them hurtling towards their destination. Garret and Theo were stumbling around, trying their best to avoid falling off.  
Within two minutes, they had reached the shore. Scara threw her arms up and the breeze they had been riding blasted them up towards the cliff the castle rest upon. As soon as the ground was under them, Elsa evaporated the ice raft, sending all of them tumbling several feet onto the clifftop.   
Scara had barely hit the ground before she rolled back to her feet.  
“Why did you do that?” She snarled at Elsa, sounding completely different from the joyful, pleasant girl Elsa had come to know. “We could be inside by now!”  
Before Elsa could open her mouth to respond, Garret placed a hand on Scara’s shoulder and she relaxed considerably.   
“Scara.” He said sternly. “Stop. Look.”  
They all gazed up in silent horror at the behemoth before them.   
They had landed several feet from the edge of the cliff, sandwiched on a narrow strip of rock between the drop to the waves below and the edge of a large moat that reeked of tangy iron and salt. Rising above them was the Northern wall of the palace.   
“Oh Merciful Mother…” Scara said quietly, her voice trembling.  
From a distance, they had assumed the walls to be made of dirt or mud. Now that they were closer, it became all too painfully clear exactly what this place was constructed of.   
Elsa swallowed hard.  
Corpses.  
They came in all sizes and shapes and states of decay from horse flesh falling off the bones and fully intact dead pigs down to the tiniest crumbling leaves. It seemed impossible that they could all stick together so solidly and yet they did. In a dark, decaying mosaic of the dead. Indiscriminate and all encompassing. A tally of what had once inhabited this island.  
Among the corpses were small piles of soil that stank: it was a dark, dank musty smell, like old books that were being eaten by worms or scraps left in the sun too long. It wasn’t quite the smell of fertile soil yet, it was still stuck in the decay phase.   
Unable to fully comprehend what lay in front of her, Elsa looked down. And nearly vomited. The moat was filled with blood. Not bright-red just-bled blood but thick, congealed brownish-red blood that slopped and frothed as if on fire. She stumbled away from it, one hand clasped tightly over her mouth and nose. Theo wrapped a strong arm around her shoulder and placed a steadying hand on her back. Her face was twisted in revulsion and she trembled almost imperceptibly but she seemed much steadier on her feet.  
“I had no idea it would be this bad…” She said quietly, more to herself than to Elsa, who was gulping large mouthfuls of the salty air. Her hand rubbed Elsa’s back absently as they stood there together. And for once, neither one of them abruptly broke the contact out of shame.  
Scara stretched out a hand towards the palace but recoiled as if she had touched boiling water. “The energy of this place…it will instantly kill any living thing that steps inside…” She said, shaking her hand. “Død’s Breath…”  
Seeming a little reluctant, Theo left Elsa’s side and went to stand beside the Guardian, who was gripping his axe tightly. “it’s worse than we thought…” She told him. “She’s too far gone. The Breath has consumed this place. You’ll need to stay here Garrett. Our spirits will protect us.”  
“The Mother’s grace will shield me.” Garret assured her. He swung his axe with easy confidence and rested it on his shoulder.  
The summer host’s gaze darkened. “We don’t know that…” Theo argued. “this is the Breath itself. It’s different than anything in Branna’s scriptures.”  
“I must protect you all.” Garret told her sharply. “Her too. She’s one of mine now, always has been. This rescue is just as much my mission as it is yours.”  
Theo’s jaw tightened. “What if the Grace doesn’t protect you from this? What if you look into her eyes and she attacks us?”  
“It will. I wont. I’ll protect you all.” He replied simply.  
“You cant be certain of any of that.” Theo argued.   
“You cant be certain the Breath will kill me.” Garret returned evenly.  
“Nothing escapes the Breath.” Theo pleaded with him, sounding like she was quoting something.   
“’The Grace shall shield their Guardian.’” Garret snapped at her.  
“’Only once the Guardian binds to them.’” Theo shot right back. They glared at each other silently for a few seconds.   
Elsa and Scara watched the entire exchange quietly. Elsa had never seen the Guardian and the Head Councilor go at each other like this before. From the look on Scara’s face, she hadn’t either.  
After several tense seconds of silent glaring, Garret lowered his head obediently. “As you wish…” He swung his axe back into its holster and crossed his arms.  
Theo turned back to Elsa and Scara, seeming relieved. “The Breath is strong, certainly, and it’s only going to get more powerful as we go. Livet and Branna will make Scara and myself immune but…” She glanced at Elsa and the queen realized the reason for her trepidation. She guessed Isen couldn’t protect her if she wasn’t awake. “Maybe you should stay behind as well.” Theo suggested.  
Elsa shook her head stubbornly. “Oh, no. No chance. You dragged me out here, I’m helping.”  
Theo bit her lip and for a moment, looked like she was on the verge of arguing. Garret raised an eyebrow but made no comments. “Fine.” Theo finally said. She turned away, gazing up at the palace. “But if you drop dead, I have ‘I told you so’ rights…”  
Now Elsa raised an eyebrow. “How exactly would that work?”  
“Doesn’t matter, I’d still have them.”  
Elsa bit back a smile as Theo turned to the spring host. “…Scara…” She began slowly.  
“I’m going in there, Theo.” Scara said stubbornly causing both Elsa and Theo to recoil in surprise.  
“Scara...”Theo pleaded, sounding like she was attempting to placate a petulant child.   
Scara would not be swayed. “This is my mission, my responsibility to rescue my sister. You’re just tagging along for me” She snapped. “Don’t even think about trying to talk me into staying behind.”  
“But Scara, if we all just march in there and…”  
“’Only Life can truly stand against Death.’” Scara quoted. “Were you really planning to just walk in there alone to capture Autumn?”  
Theo looked away from her, refusing to answer.  
Scara glared at her, the face marring her features until she was almost unrecognizable. It was an ugly expression and it looked wrong on her. “I’ve waited a long time for this Theo. Don’t keep us apart any longer.” Her anger was terrifying and it seemed to project a dangerous snap to the air around her, as if she were capable of lashing out without warning at any provocation. Even Theo took a half-step back.  
Waving a hand, Scara blasted herself upwards on a burst of air. She rose in a steady, graceful arc, descending gently to land on the far side of the bloody moat. She turned around with an expectant look on her face. “Coming?” She called.   
Elsa turned to Theo.   
“Be my guest.” Theo said, gesturing at the moat. Elsa lifted her hand and an ice bridge materialized above the liquid. It was simple but sturdy, Elsa made sure to include a handrail, she had no wish to even think about falling into a pool of blood.   
Theo turned back to Garret. “We’ll be as quick as we can.” She promised.  
He stepped forward, gripping her forearm in a tight, comrades’ grip. “You’d better, otherwise I’ll have to come in there after you, Død’s Breath or not.” A small smile danced across Theo’s face and she squeezed his arm back before letting go.   
“It wont come to that.”  
Theo stepped up onto the bridge, walking across with confident, even strides as her years in the ice fields helped her effortlessly balance on the ice. Elsa followed, torn between glancing back at Garret, looking up at the nightmarish palace or watching Theo’s mastery of the coveted skill. Thankfully, the walk wasn’t long enough for her to accomplish all three.  
As soon as they stepped onto the far side, Scara was off again, walking briskly along the palace wall. Elsa and Theo hurried to keep up.   
The palace walls towered over them, casting long shadows from the midday sun that they could not keep out of without risking falling into the moat. There was a chill in the air that Elsa suspected was coming from the shadows themselves. The stench coming off of the walls made the air even more difficult to breathe, especially with the lack of wind. Elsa knew she would never consider the midday-summer stench of the Arendelle stables worthy of being called unpleasant again. Not after this. She felt bile rise in her throat again and fought to keep it down. But there wasn’t much to look at that wasn’t vomit-inducing.  
A few feet in front of her, Scara walked purposefully, as if she neither noticed nor cared what the palace looked or smelled like. She hugged the wall, occasionally brushing up against it with no sign of discomfort or revulsion. Where her hands ran along the wall, dead leaves grew green again, skulls and carcasses crumbled to soil and sprouted plants. But they didn’t last long before the spell consumed them, making them wither and fade back to their original states or degenerate into a mound of dry, infertile soil.   
They had only been walking for a few minutes before a door appeared in the wall before them. Stark white bones cross-crossed and jammed into each other to form a hard, jagged barrier that stretched halfway up the palace battlement. Scara immediately stepped forward, her hands outstretched but Theo caught her by the arm.   
“You don’t have to…”  
Scara shrugged her off. “I’m going in Theo.” She placed her hands on the bones and pushed. The door cracked in the center, splitting open and crumbling to dust as the interior of the palace was revealed. “You cant stop us.”  
She strode inside, leaving the other two to tail apprehensively after her.  
As they crossed the threshold, a mighty gust of wind blew by them, sending all three stumbling.   
It was a chilly exhale that seeped into their skin and rattled their bones around like dice. Elsa stumbled and struggled to right herself. It felt as if a great weight had settled upon her, intent on crushing her to the ground and holding her there until she gave up. She could feel energy leaving her body, flowing out with every exhale and tumbling from her skin to fizzle and die in the air. On her left, Theo was breathing hard, her fists clenched tightly.  
“It’s…it’s too strong…” She said through clenched teeth.  
The only one seemly unaffected by the wind was Scara. She stood still and resolute, her eyes hard. A cloud of pollen had formed around her head, snapping softly at the air around her. Slowly, the shape of the Life spirit rose from within it, causing Scara’s long blonde hair to levitate slightly. Livet drew a great breath in, seeming to soak up all the air in the room within herself, swelling above Scara to accommodate. Scara’s eyes blazed and green light poured from her hands. It spun around the threesome, wrapping them all in the soft smell of pollen and the warmth of a spring breeze.   
Elsa’s nose twitched at the smell and the stony chill seemed to pull back slightly from her, hovering at a safe distance. She felt her strength start to return, the familiar cold of her snow seeping back into her veins. She glanced left. Theo’s skin had taken on a faint reddish hue and Elsa could see her eyes glowing with Branna’s presence. As the cloud continued to thicken, sparks snapped at the fire-girl’s fingers and smoke leaked from her lips.  
Elsa looked down at her hands and where they were touched by Scara’s light, saw a tiny hint of blue crackling along her skin like lightning.  
That’s…that’s Isen…she’s in me…  
Frantically, she reached out with her mind, calling, pleading, asking…  
Nothing.  
Even now…?  
The Breath passed around them and continued on.  
Slowly, the glows faded. Livet sank back into Scara’s body tiredly and without a word. Scara stumbled slightly as the spirit re-entered her. “I’m fine.” She snapped as Theo tried to steady her. She firmly planted her feet and marched onwards.   
Elsa and Theo exchanged another glance, this one slightly breathless then wordlessly took off after her.   
The interior of the palace was dark and damp, probably because there was no natural light or torches. The entrance hall contained only staircases, seven of them to be exact, each one carved of bone and carpeted with stretched skins and completely identical to the others. They all stretched upwards into the unknown, curling out of sight within a few steps.  
Theo clasped her hands tightly together and gently breathed into her cupped palms. A tiny ball of light rose from her palms and hovered unsteadily in the air above her outstretched hand.  
It did little against the gloom.  
“Which one…?” Elsa asked, glancing around at the staircases.   
Instead of replying, Scara turned on her heel and began to climb the closest staircase, the one just left of the one opposite the door. Theo and Elsa shared a look than, with a mutual shrug, followed. The flickering light let them see the steps directly in front of them but little more. The darkness became more oppressive as they moved up. Elsa had to stop herself from looking around and trying to see things in the darkness. She’d already seen more than enough of this place.   
At the top of the stairs was a long, dead-end corridor with seven identical doors. Elsa was beginning to sense a pattern. Scara didn’t even hesitate, she took the first door on the right, leading them down a long, twisting corridor full of complete animal skeletons that loomed eerily out of the darkness as their light bounced off them. At the end of this gallery was another set of seven, only this time seven blank tapestries. Scara pulled the one all the way on the right away from the wall and slid behind it.   
Elsa and Theo followed her, not wanting to linger or even contemplate what was in some of the corridors and rooms they passed. And whenever they lingered too long and Scara got too far ahead of them , the Breath began to nip at them again, teasing and taunting until they could slip back under Scara’s protective proximity.   
The further they went, the more convinced they became that Autumn was some kind of insane genius. The labyrinth they were navigating was staggeringly huge, seemingly impossibly so even given the outside mammoth size of the palace. For another, it was entirely based on the number seven. Seven staircases, seven doors, seven passageways, seven taxidermied (they hoped) animals.   
Elsa couldn’t see how they were going to find anyone in here, much less navigate their way back out. After the fifth choice of passageway, she lost track of the route they had come. But Scara was like a dog with a scent, she never hesitated at a turn or obstacle but plowed ahead, Elsa and Theo tailing awkwardly behind with the light. She led them down many long, dark corridors, leaves crunching underfoot, tiny plants sprouting in her wake. She seemed to know exactly where she was headed.  
“This has been easy…” Theo said after awhile, startling Elsa from her thoughts.“…too easy.”  
“You were expecting something difficult?” Elsa asked, her voice unusually raspy from lack of use. She cleared her throat, hoping her intended sarcasm would be more effective next time.  
“I was expecting a confrontation.” Theo admitted. She glanced sidelong at Elsa. “I mean, your retrieval set quite a high standard.”  
Elsa didn’t know if it was more the atmosphere of the gloom around them or her frayed nerves but Theo’s teasing was a welcome respite from both nonetheless.   
Theo seemed to notice this and offered Elsa a half smirk that almost looked seductive in the bad light. Elsa blushed and looked away.   
“She knows we’re here.” Theo continued, glancing up at the walls as they walked through one of seven archways of rat skulls that Scara had picked. “She’s been waiting for us to come.”  
“But why?” Elsa asked. “Wouldn’t she not know about us? I didn’t.”  
“Død might have told her.” Theo replied. “Branna certainly talked my ear off about you before we came to our agreement.”  
Elsa was startled. “Really?”  
Theo nodded. “Yup, she kept saying: ‘Isen is coming…find her for me.’ And other such variations. It drove me mad, seeing visions of Isen without knowing what I was seeing. ”  
Elsa felt her chest tighten. “What did you see?”  
Scara stopped so suddenly, Elsa and Theo nearly ran into her.   
She stretched her hand towards the wall in front of them. “It’s here.” Livet’s voice said in a breathy whisper. “The throne room is just beyond this wall. She is there.”   
They all gazed up. Instead of the usual pattern of seven, in front of them was a blank towering wall of dead leaves. Scara placed a hand on it, turning a few leaves green but they quickly colored and dried back into their dead state. Elsa placed a palm against the wall and pushed. Leaves crunched under her palm but it was like stone, it didn’t move or give way.   
“Looks like we’ll need to burn our way through.” Elsa said. She stepped back and looked at Theo. “Can you do it?”  
“I’m weakened, not invalid…” Theo muttered with a slight twitch of her lip. She stepped up to the wall and looked around at the others.   
“Ready?”  
Scara nodded, her green eyes blazing with a silent determination to finally see her other half.  
Elsa could only manage a curt nod, ice curling nervously at her fingertips. Her heart was thrumming slowly in her chest. As if it knew what waited in the room beyond. And it didn’t like it.  
Theo raised a hand and with a snap of her fingers, set fire to the door before them. The dead leaves curled and smoked relentlessly as they slowly burned and shriveled to ash. The door slowly shrank away, leaving behind a stench of decay and the smoky reek of smoldering leaves. When the doorway was clear, the three stepped cautiously into the throne room of the palace.   
The room they entered had a towering ceiling that ended in a high vaulted ceiling held up by an enormous polished ribcage. Elsa didn’t even want to think about what manner of beast had contributed that to the palace’s design. Several thick bone pillars ran in uneven lines through the hall, their loads invisible in the gloom. Low-burning torches hung off of the pillars, casting a dim pallor over the floor and making the rafters of bone glow.  
Elsa looked down. The floor was carpeted in thick, dried grass.  
Well, at least there was no blood here.  
They had come in through the back, that much Elsa could tell. For one, they could see an enormous door of skulls across the cavernous hall, much like the one they’d used to enter the castle.   
For another, the ornate back of the great throne in the center of the room reared up before them.   
Without even looking at the other two, Scara plowed determinedly ahead, her footsteps scratching along the grass underfoot. Where she stepped, brilliant flowers and vibrant grass sprang to life, lifting upright as if they’d finally seen the sun. But as soon as her foot left contact, they shriveled and died again.  
Elsa felt like the floor was sending tiny pulses of dark energy through her with every step. Like Death was nipping at her heels again. She shuddered and resisted the temptation to freeze the floor entirely. Movement on her right caught her attention. Theo’s hands were twitching, miniscule sparks snapping at her fingers as if she too were contemplating destroying the floor in some way.  
In a moment of desperation and companionship, Elsa reached out and clasped Theo’s hand tightly in hers. Steam curled into the air around them as nervous ice and embers met and extinguished each other. Theo looked at her in surprise, then smiled softly. Elsa returned it.   
They continued to hold hands until they reached the center of the room. Then, finally they rounded the high throne.  
None of them was ready for what greeted them on the throne of corpses.   
Elsa stopped in place, her mind having gone blank at the information just presented to it.  
Theo’s eyes narrowed, her hand slipping from Elsa’s. “So it is true…” she breathed into the deathly silence.  
Scara was still, her eyes wide and blank as she took in her host twin.  
The person on the throne however, had eyes only for the snow queen.  
“Hello Elsa.” The host said, lips curling up in a twisted smile. “I was wondering when you’d finally come.”  
Elsa gazed up at the throne, at the long fingers gently tapping the skull they rested on. At the thick, auburn hair the color of dying leaves. Into the familiar, stony gray eyes that sang the mantra of death.  
Eyes that had once loomed over her, calling for her death.  
Elsa supposed that, given what had happened, it was only fitting that this be the way the cycle was balanced.  
Or rather, it made perfect sense that this was why the cycle was out of balance.  
The name was a sharp probe piercing her tongue.  
“Hans.”


	13. Clash of the Seasons

For the first time in his life, Kristoff was entering the Valley of Living Rock filled with fear. He had been riding hard all day, stopping only very briefly when Sven needed a quick rest or drink of water. But even the reindeer had been struggling ahead ceaselessly, both of them growing more and more anxious as the day steadily moved onward, the sun sinking towards the horizon.  
Now it was nearly sunset and they had finally arrived.  
Before Sven even rounded the corner into the clearing where the trolls gathered, Kristoff was yelling at the top of his lungs.  
“Guys! Guys wake up! Guys…” He trailed off as Sven skidded hastily to a halt, sides heaving as he panted.  
The trolls were already awake, already silently gathered around the valley. Waiting for him. They all stared at him unblinkingly. No one smiled, no one even moved, there wasn’t even a breath of wind to rustle their grassy hair.   
Kristoff slowly slid off of Sven’s back. The instant his feet touched the ground, Bulda rolled forward and clung to his legs.  
“Kristoff! What has happened?” She demanded in a shrill voice, her face buried in his pants.   
“What…what do you mean?”  
The troll who had raised him as her son looked up at him with fear. Seeing that, Kristoff’s unease tripled. The trolls feared nothing. In all the years he’d lived with them, not even the strongest of magics had ever given them so much as a hint of dread. They were children of the gods, housing powerful magic incomprehensible to humankind. Even Elsa’s formidable powers had not frightened them. Saddened them maybe but never scared them.  
Bulda tugged on his pants, making him fall into a crouch at her side. “The stars have shifted, the lights have flickered.” His troll mother told him in a frantic whisper, her eyes wide with fear. “Something is very wrong, what is happening?”  
Kristoff was not partial to the rituals and secrets of the trolls. For some reason, he had never liked magic very much. There were many things the creatures kept to themselves and that had suited him just fine in his childhood. So he gave them the only detail he thought could possibly be important.  
“Elsa left yesterday. With the other hosts.”  
His words seemed to send a silent ripple across the gathering, rendering each troll as still and impassive as the rocks they became in hibernation. Kristoff glanced around at the assembly but no one would meet his eyes. Not even the little ones.  
Another rippled flowed back to Kristoff as the trolls parted to make way for their Sage and King to come forward. Pabbie faced Kristoff for the first time in months, his ancient and wrinkled face beginning to crack with stress and sorrow.   
“It is as I feared.”  
“Pabbie…” An uncomfortable mixture of anger and relief flowed through Kristoff. Pabbie always knew what to do.  
The ancient troll gazed sadly at the human his tribe had adopted. His eyes were squinting so hard they had nearly closed. Slowly, Pabbie turned on his heel. “Kristoff…follow me.”  
The two of them walk along the path Pabbie’s entrance had created in the valley. As they passed, the other trolls lowered their heads. But it was not a bow of respect, rather, it seem more shameful then that.  
They left the valley floor and climbed a short steep incline up one of the walls. The Sage’s worn feet padded softly on the hard earthen floor as he led Kristoff into the one cave he had never been permitted to enter in his childhood.   
Pabbie’s temple.  
The ancient sage of the trolls lived and hibernated in the smallest of the tribe’s caves. It was so low that Kristoff practically had to crawl to fit through the opening. Further in, the tunnel widened and he was able to crouch on the floor, with his head bumping the ceiling. Pabbie waved his hands over the crystals he wore and they began to shine brightly in the gloom, illuminating the space. The tiny cave was filled with crystals, each of which sparked to life when touched by the light. Soon enough the entire cavern was pulsing and glowing around them. Were his reason for being here not so mysterious and disconcerting, Kristoff would have felt awed and humbled to be in such a sacred space.   
Pabbie settled himself in the center of the room, looking up at the rounded ceiling above them as the crystals glowed. “There is something else you should know,” he began softly. “a secret told only to the Sage of the Trolls and the Head Councilor when absolutely necessary. No human has ever been told this secret.”  
“What secret?” Kristoff asked in a low voice. He didn’t care if he was the first. He just wanted his family safe.   
Pabbie lowered his head slightly, the lights from the crystals dancing across his wide back. “The condition that makes the hosts dangerous. Not only to themselves but to everyone in this world.”  
Kristoff waited in silence, dreading whatever it was he was about to hear.  
“The spirits are emotional, complex beings.” The old troll said. “Their feelings manifest as raw power, expressed as the fury of the seasons. For them to manifest in human form causes terrible pain, forced isolation and an unimaginable burden on their host. Some become so disillusioned between their two selves that they begin to trade memories with the goddess within them, their experiences mixing and forming new, untrue memories that haunt them day and night. Only by bonding completely with their host can they avoid driving each other insane. When that bond is established, the host gives up their control over their emotions. The spirit rushes in and fills every possible ounce of emotional space within their host, sealing them and protecting them from lashing out with those incredibly powerful emotions and destroying themselves and others.  
“With one exception.”   
Pabbie raised his head and traced several light patterns in the air. The light swirled like smoke around his hands for a few seconds before sinking back into the crystals and continuing its journey. “Bonds made prior to that one are dangerous. The spirit has no control over them. Anyone who the host formed a deep bond with before they did with their spirit remains a cable, forever tethering the host to those emotions. To that person. It leaves a hole for power to escape, a hole for corruption to seep in and tear them apart, host, spirit, season. If a host and their spirit are corrupted as such, they may very well destroy each other. Destroy the cycle.”  
“Why are you telling me this?” Kristoff asked, his shaking voice betraying his fear.  
“I made a mistake 15 years ago…” Pabbie whispered. “…and now the consequences are going to be known by all the realm.”  
“What are you talking about?”  
But abruptly, the old troll curled himself into a ball, cutting out the light. The crystals around them rapidly grew dark, plunging the tiny cavern into complete darkness. Kristoff heard Pabbie rolling himself back towards the entrance and hurriedly crawled after him, scraping his elbows blindly on the floor.  
When he emerged again, the Sage was standing on the lip of the cliff, gazing sadly down at his amassed brethren below.  
Panting, Kristoff crawled up next to him and rested, waiting for the troll to speak again.  
“I never should have tried to circumvent the Mother’s Doctrine.” Pabbie said in a shaking voice. “I broke the First Law and the ripples have spread and created something terrible…”  
“What do you mean?”  
Pabbie threw his head back, gazing up at the sky. “The seasons are coming together…they will clash and burn and howl and writhe.”  
Almost as soon as he said that, clouds thicker than night covered the setting sun, blotting out all light and casting the valley into an eerie orange-twilight glow. The trolls below them stared up at the sky, silent and stoic, watching the storm gather.  
Kristoff shivered terribly and rose to a half-crouch. “What is it Pabbie? What did you do? What is happening?” He turned to the ancient troll, fighting a rising sense of doom that threatened to engulf him.  
“The four are together…” Pabbie muttered to himself, watching the sky carefully. He turned back to Kristoff and the ice harvester swore he saw crystal tears glistening in the old rock’s eyes. “This, Kristoff,” Pabbie said solemnly. “is the beginning of the end.”  
***  
No one spoke for the longest time. The hall was, fittingly, silent as a grave.  
Elsa had no words.   
He…but how…? Hans is…  
Theo though, apparently still had some of her wits about her. “So…you…” She began in a shaky voice. “you’re…”  
Slowly, Hans shifted his unwavering gaze from Elsa to the other hosts. “I am Hans of the Southern Isles.” He proclaimed, by way of introduction. “And yes, I am the host of this wretched demon.”   
He bore little resemblance to the man Elsa had met all those months ago. Gone was his well-shaved chin and trimmed side-burns. He’d let his face become scraggly and unkempt, like a crag covered in fallen leaves. Thick locks of hair fell to his ears, curling slightly but never quite enough to bounce. His nose, once straight and handsome was now improperly healed into a jagged knob, marring his otherwise beautiful face.   
His clothes were a rich auburn color, identical to his hair. He’d donned a fine suit and a grey cloak that cascaded around his seated form. Upon his head, was a twisted crown of thorns. He did not look like a man who had been living alone in this palace for the past two weeks. He looked regal, powerful.   
Theo made a choking sound, drawing Elsa’s attention to her. “I saw the name on the scroll…” The fire-girl said. “I thought it was a mistake…or the name of a province…” She stared up at the man before them, shaking her head in disbelief. “How…?”  
“How indeed?” Hans asked, his voice as slippery as a snake gliding through honey. He tapped the skull under his hand again, as if he were counting out the seconds before he should speak again. “And yet, here we are. Finally together again.” His eyes drifted disinterestedly back over Theo and Scara before resting on Elsa. “All of us.”  
Elsa swore his voice had changed as surely as his eyes had. There was a darkness to it, covering up a promise of pain with slick and sharp words.  
“She told me you were coming…I must say, I admire your bravery in facing me.” He addressed this statement only to Elsa. She felt her chest tighten and her heart begin to race loudly.   
“Nice place you made here.” She finally managed to say. By some miracle of her court breeding, she managed to make it sound like she were merely greeting him at a political council.  
Hans bristled, clearly not appreciating her attempt at diplomacy. “Where do you think I got the idea?” He hissed. He gestured around the room. “See anything you recognize?”  
Elsa took another look around the room. Her eyes had adjusted to the gloom and she could make out finer details. There were patterns to the arrangement of the corpses, spirals that reminded her of her snowflakes. The pillars spiraling up into the ceiling appeared to have similar textures and ridges to that of her own design. Even the shape of the room resembled that of her entrance hall. Without a doubt, he’d been inspired by aspects of her creation. Elsa couldn’t say that his would work though. Based on her knowledge of architecture, this entire thing was built by an amateur. Structurally, it was barely able to hold itself up.   
Tearing her gaze away from the walls, Elsa examined him carefully. “What happened to you?” She asked.  
Hans gestured at his crooked nose. “Courtesy of your sister.” He said spitefully.   
Elsa couldn’t help but smirk. “Remind me to congratulate her on her impeccable aim.” She said as politely as she could muster. “But I was talking about your eyes.”  
The dull gray orbs that had once been a deceptively pleasant emerald glinted angrily. “That’s her work.” He spat. “The voice in my head…she did this to me.”  
“Where is she?” Scara asked in a deadly calm voice. “What have you done with her?”  
Hans turned to Scara, looking at her as if he were noticing her for the first time. His eyes slowly traveled up and down her small frame, appraising her long blonde hair and brilliant green eyes. His gaze softened slightly, his fingers ceasing their tapping. For a split second, it seemed as if he had gone somewhere else. Or was someone else entirely. “Done with her?” Hans snapped so suddenly and violently that Elsa and Theo flinched. “I’ve ‘done’ nothing with her. Perhaps you’d be better off asking just what she has done to me.” The air around him seemed to shimmer with his anger, as if he were projecting some kind of ill-feeling all around him. Elsa was fascinated and terrified all at once.   
“We have heard her cries.” Theo said, her voice gaining strength. “She has reached out to us, begging for help. We know you are hurting her.”  
Hans turned his ugly gaze on her and glared. The air around him shimmered distinctly. “All I am doing, is taking control over the curse she has bestowed on me…”  
To Theo’s credit, she didn’t flinch under his gaze. But she clearly looked uncomfortable with his words.   
“’Bestowed’ on you?” She repeated. “You were not born this way?”   
Hans leaned back in the throne but didn’t take his eyes off of her. “Not exactly. At least not that I have been told.” He traced a disinterested finger over the skull under his hand. “But it is my curse, and I am using it as I see fit.”  
Theo bristled noticeably and a spark snapped at her fingers. “You’re playing with a dangerous power.” She snarled. “Sooner or later, it will explode in your face, hurting all those unfortunate enough to be around you.”  
Hans regarded her evenly, one eyebrow raised at the smoke that spilled from the summer hosts’ fingers. “Well then, I’ll just have to hope I’m around the right people when that happens.” He replied, eying her as one might a deer they were about to shoot.   
Theo looked ready to spring forward and strangle him with her bare hands. Seeing this, Elsa took a deliberate step in front of her.   
“Calm down.” Elsa soothed the girl. “Don’t do anything rash, that’s what he wants.” She could see Theo struggling to get her temper back under control, the sparks snapping from her hands at odd intervals.   
“This is unnatural.” Theo hissed, lowering her voice so Hans could not hear. “It’s not right…we cant just let him continue running around like this. We have to stop him before he hurts anyone else!”  
“He hasn’t attacked yet.” Elsa pointed out.  
“She’s right.” Scara said, surprising both Elsa and Theo. “He hasn’t lashed out…he doesn’t want to hurt us…he’s lost and alone and wants to understand…” She clenched her fists as a tremor of pain flashed through her gaze. “He wants to stop hurting.”  
Elsa looked up at the throne again, thinking hard. Hans gazed right back, his dull grey eyes hard and hurtful. She thought of the young man she’d met at her coronation, the man she’d never really trusted but hadn’t really known why. The smooth politician who had fooled even her into believing he was a humble, trustworthy soul. The man who had both saved her integrity and caused her deepest hurt.  
Prince Hans of the Southern Isles. One-time fiancé to Anna. One-time would-be assassin.   
Maybe, just maybe, there was more to him then that.   
“Maybe we can convince him to back down.” Elsa said softly to the other two.   
“Right…you wouldn’t come with us except by force, why would he?” Theo’s sarcasm was so dry, she could have set it on fire with a spark.  
“Because we’re offering him something he’s always wanted.” Elsa replied immediately. “A home where he can be with people who respect him. People like him.”  
Both of them looked at her but neither said anything more. Elsa placed a gentle hand on Theo’s arm. “Just, let me speak to him.” She pleaded. The summer host was still regarding her with unease. “Trust me, Theo.” Elsa said.  
Theo’s gaze flared briefly then, she expelled a great breath and stepped down. “Fine.”  
Elsa took a step closer to the throne. She hated looking up at Hans but she knew him being able to look down at her right now could very well be all that was keeping him from lashing out.  
“Hans…” She began slowly. “how long have you been like this?”  
“I thought that might be your first question…” Hans sat up taller, his hand caressing the skull he curled it around the face. “Years. Since childhood.” He smiled down at her but it was completely lacking in warmth. “I was just like you Elsa…sheltered, hidden away from the world…told I was a monster by my own parents…”  
On Elsa’s left, Theo twitched uncomfortably. Elsa fought not to let any emotion show on her face. Hans’ eyes slid back and forth, taking everything in. “Thankfully for my kingdom, I was thirteenth in line, not first. So my parents never had to worry about what would happen if I took the throne…” He paused and for the first time since she’d known him, Elsa saw a flicker of genuine sadness in his eyes. “They…saw it best to ignore my existence as best they could.”  
Unwilling to dwell on the possibility that Hans possessed human emotion, Elsa asked another question. “If you were kept locked away, why did you come to my coronation?”  
The sadness vanished, replaced by a glint of satisfaction. “I escaped.” Hans boasted. “With all my unwed brothers distracted by the thought of snaring you and my wedded brothers occupied with keeping them from killing each other, no one missed me as I snuck away.  
“My intention was to have a little fun, for once. Maybe see if I could win your heart or at least convince you to trust me. But then I met your sister.”  
Elsa stiffened at the mention of Anna. It did not go unnoticed by anyone in the room.  
“In her, I saw my salvation, I saw my way out of the Isles. And my way into Arendelle. A way into a life I was always destined for. A way to be the one in control, never to be the prisoner again.” A cruel smirk twisted his face grotesquely. “And Anna made it oh so easy…she practically guaranteed that I would soon be sitting on the kingdom’s throne.” He waved a hand. “After I’d disposed of you of course.”  
Elsa stood there, trembling with rage and fear, her fists and jaw clenched tightly to keep the ice from shooting out of her. The temperature was starting to drop but she was determined not to show him any reaction. He was trying to wind her up, trying to make her lash out…  
“And then I learned about your powers. And I knew I had to keep you alive.”  
Stunned, Elsa blinked several times. “Keep me alive?” She repeated, unable to believe what he was saying.  
Hans turned to look at her, his grey eyes piercing her blue ones. “Finding out about you told me I wasn’t alone. It told me I was not the only one of my kind. I was one of at least two.”  
A wave of empathy stole completely unwelcome through Elsa. She thought back to that moment at her coronation. The moment her powers were revealed…Hans had looked at her…like he just couldn’t believe it. Like it shocked him and pleased him all at once. She closed her eyes, trying to keep her emotions under control. “Why didn’t you tell me?” She asked him softly. “I could have helped you.”  
“Would you have believed me?” He replied, just as quietly.  
“Probably.”  
Hans scoffed and any hint of camaraderie disappeared. “My powers are not nearly as conspicuous as yours. Seeing how hard it was for you, how everyone turned on you in an instant, how you struggled. I couldn’t have that. Your curse kills people slowly. Mine…” He paused, lost in thought. “…is instant.”  
Elsa knew this was her chance. He was vulnerable now, she knew his motivations. “I can help you now Hans…” She began gently. “I learned control. These two…” She gestured at Scara and Theo. “…our…sisters. They know how to help you…”  
Hans laughed, sounding mildly insane. “Why? Why help me?” He looked at Elsa, entirely blind to the other two, gazing at her like he could make her vanish simply by glaring. “I know you Elsa, you are just like me! We flourish alone. We crave loneliness and solitude. Because the world has done us no favors. The world fears us and hates us. You hate me. You’d rather kill me than see me redeemed.” His hand closed around the skull and Elsa heard the distinct crunch of bone. “So why help?”  
Elsa did want to hurt him. She wanted him to disappear back to the Isles and never bother her or her sister again. Never challenge her fragile grip on her confidence, never threaten the safety of her kingdom. Out of everyone else on Earth, she hated him the most.   
But she could see the dark circles under his eyes born of sleepless nights, the tension in his shoulders, the loneliness in his gaze. The way he tried to fill this entire empty room with his presence and powers like it could make up for the lack of people around him. He was alone and desperate. And scared.   
Just like she was. Just like Theo was.   
He was lashing out to protect himself, believing himself not worth saving.  
And she understood that better than anyone. So like it or not, he would have to become a part of her life. Just like the others had.  
Forcing her hands to unclench, Elsa lowered her gaze and spoke gently.   
“Hans, you once reminded me not to be a monster. Now let me help you realize the same thing.”  
“I also tried to kill you and steal your kingdom.” Hans spat back immediately and Elsa could hear the sneer in his voice. “I left your sister to die.”  
The words tore through her heart, shattering her weak hold on her serenity. “Why?” Elsa asked, raising her head enough to look him in the eye, her blood starting to churn. “You said you wanted me alive but then you tried to murder me on the fjord. You had plenty of opportunity to kill me prior to that snowstorm. So why wait until then?”  
“It was my only option. I only let you live that long because I thought you could teach me control.” Hans leaned forward, half rising out of the throne. “But once I learned you were as helpless as I was, that you could no more stop the Winter than I could, you only became an obstacle to my rise to power. So I reverted to my original plan, albeit, slightly altered. I had to wait until I could manufacture a moment where you would be seen as the monster and I as the triumphant hero. My power would be welcomed as the sorcery that had freed Arendelle of Winter’s curse.”  
Elsa might have been imagining it but Hans’ eyes had started to glow a dull, white color. “I……would have been…FREE…” He hissed through clenched teeth.  
Scara let out a whimper of pain and clutched her head. Theo was at her side in an instant, her arms around the other girl. “Scara! What is it?” What’s wrong?”  
Before Scara could answer, Hans let out a moan and writhed uncomfortably in his chair. His grey eyes began to glow in earnest now, the light within escaping.  
“Where… is…Isen?” He asked in a strangled voice, his eyes darting restlessly around the room.  
Deep down, at that moment Elsa knew she was no longer speaking to Hans. She was speaking to Død.  
“She’s here…”Elsa said, her voice trembling. “W…with me…I think.”  
The eyes snapped to her and a shiver went through Elsa. In those eyes were centuries of hurt, months of pain and suffering. And desperate hope that those times were finally over. Hans lifted a hand in her direction as if asking her to dance. The eyes widened as if in surprise at the appendage’s betrayal but the movement did not cease. “Let…me…speak…to her…” The spirit pleaded in Hans’ voice. Hans’ entire frame was shaking. “Save me…sister…”  
“I…” Elsa looked at Theo who met her gaze uneasily from where she still supported Scara. The spring host was hanging limply now, whimpering pitifully and holding her head.  
Elsa turned back to Død. “I cant…” She admitted, feeling more useless than when Anna had been turned into an ice statue. All of this was too similar: unable to help her sister, failing at even the simplest of family tasks…  
Hans let out an anguished wail that shook the castle to its foundations. He slumped back in the throne, hand over his eyes as Elsa, Theo and Scara struggled to stay on their feet. A pillar crumbled to dust and leaves rained down from the ceiling as the quake roiled through the palace. The bones around them rattled ominously as Hans moaned. Gradually, the shaking began to slow then stopped entirely.   
Slowly, Hans pushed himself upright, using the arm of his throne to do so. “You see how she torments me?” He asked them, panting. “It is like this every day…and every time…it hurts a little more.” Tears shone in his eyes. “And you say I am torturing her?”  
A small voice answered him. “If you just let her go…” Scara murmured, her eyes glazed over. “opened yourself to her pains…”   
But Hans ignored her, his focus was entirely on Elsa. “We are not so different after all Elsa…” He told her “we both have escaped pain and suffering only to find ourselves trapped by more. We both come from families that would rather we not exist.”  
Elsa stiffened and several icicles formed around her. “That is not true.”  
But Hans had seen her reaction. He knew he had her now. “Your parents didn’t love you.” He taunted, slumping back into his seat. “They feared you and they disguised that as love. And they taught you that fear, that self-loathing because they just couldn’t love a daughter who nearly killed her sibling. So they locked you up, saying it was for your own good.”  
Elsa felt tears prick her eyes. Snow was starting to swirl around her now but she couldn’t have stopped it if she tried. He couldn’t be right. Her parents had loved her…they had. Why else would they have been so kind, so caring, so careful…  
Why else would they have kept her away from the only person who understood her?  
Hans was still speaking, the manner of his voice growing dangerously close to ranting. “It was the same way with me: the bane of my father’s existence. To be constantly told it was such a privilege to be able to live in the castle with my brothers, to still be alive.” He threw back his head, laughing harshly and all the bones in the palace seemed to rattle in consent. “The only reason I am still alive is that my father and all of my brothers were too cowardly to try to kill me themselves!” He looked down at the other hosts. Dead leaves were beginning to swirl menacingly around the base of his throne. Theo took a half step back, raising her hands.   
Hans lifted a hand and regarded it with hateful anguish. “Do know what kind of a curse this is? To kill everything you touch? My power wasn’t like yours, I couldn’t hide the effects, blaming it on the weather or the imagination. Touching anything alive was always a gamble: would it die or wouldn’t it?” A smirk that didn’t reach his eyes curled across his lips. “Gloves are a blessing, are they not?”  
At her side, Elsa could hear sparks snapping at Theo’s fingers again but she was too busy trying to keep her icicles from spreading to reach out and stop her.  
Hans leaned forward again, his hands crushing both of the armrests of his throne this time. “No one loved me, only one person, one person in my life has ever shown me an ounce of kindness!” He roared.   
Elsa saw the tear escape and run down his face. It affected her more than she thought possible. “Hans…you don’t need to do this. You are one of us. We can help you.” Elsa was pleading now, practically begging this man she loathed to stop. “Let us help you!”  
Scara moaned again and Hans’ entire body clenched. He closed his eyes, throwing his head back as a tremor wracked his entire body.  
Scara reached out towards him, her eyes flashing a deeper green as she struggled to reach him. Theo sprang to her side and held her back in a vice-like grip. Hans seemed to have gone rigid.   
“…sister…” Scara hissed.  
Hans did not appear to hear her. Suddenly his head snapped forward, his own eyes blazing a dull white light.  
“Run my sisters…he has too much power…he will kill you all…!”  
Hans let out a strangled yell and the glow in his eyes faded once again. “It’s too late, Elsa!” He shouted, gritting his teeth. “You can’t help me. No one can. Death has come…and he will always prevail.”  
Hans rose slowly to his feet. His eyes had stopped glowing but they were now filled with a maniacal thrill. “I will be free of this demon…and I will have my rightful kingdom in this world.”  
He held out his hand, curling his fingers inward slightly until he had formed a loose fist.  
A sword slowly shimmered into being in his grip, appearing out of nowhere.  
Elsa heard Theo draw a sharp intake of breath. “…the Blade of Death…!” She whispered.  
Hans smirked at them. “Recognize this?” He asked the queen.  
Elsa took a step back. She did indeed. It was the same blade he’d tried to kill her with. The same blade Anna had shattered when it struck her icy form.  
The sword before her now was intact but riddled with thin, nearly-invisible cracks along the blade as if it had been welded carefully back together.  
“This is the same blade your sister shattered.” Hans confirmed, stroking it as if it were a favorite pet.  
Scara’s head snapped up. “She…shattered it?!” She cried, incredulous. Theo’s brow furrowed in surprise but she said nothing.  
Hans was once again ignoring anyone but Elsa. “How is little Anna, my dear queen?” He taunted. “Is she happy? Is she safe?”  
A whimper escaped Elsa’s lips completely unbidden. Ice began to gather at her fingertips and snow flurries were breaking out sporadically around the room.  
“This demon inside of me has a big sister too,” Hans continued, taking short breaths and giggling. “one she loves and trusts to save her. And where is that sister? Is she here?”  
Elsa’s fist closed tightly, her nails digging into her skin. An icicle rose beside her, its sharp tip pointed at Hans.  
“She cries constantly to me: Isen will save me! Isen will come! But you, you can’t even speak to Isen, how could you possibly save her sister?”  
“Enough!” Theo cried, stopping Elsa from either breaking down and wailing or impaling Hans with an icicle. She honestly did not know which one she would have resorted too if Theo hadn’t stopped Hans when she did.“You have abused this power long enough.” The summer host declared. “We will restrain you and take you back to the temple. Where you belong.”   
Hans smirked and lazily pointed the sword at her. “I’m afraid I cant let you do that.”  
Theo crouched in a fighting position but eyed the blade with poorly concealed fear. “You don’t get a choice in this matter.”  
Hans regarded her silently for a moment before he responded. “If I end you all…she will stop crying…she will give in once she realizes my power.” The smile slid off his face. “It’s the only way I can be free.”  
Scara looked up, a dreamy expression in her eyes. “You cant kill us.” She muttered, more to herself than anyone else in the room.  
Hans ignored her. “She’s told me stories about this blade…about where it was forged…the power it holds. A power so terrible her Mother locked it away. And now it’s in my hand…”  
He hefted the weapon and Theo flinched reflexively, fire crackling to life in her palm. “Now…” he said to them all. “feel the wrath…of Death.”  
He raised the sword above his head and plunged it into the bones at his feet.   
The grassy floor beneath them began to churn and move, the carcasses and dead grasses, moving to ensnare them. But just as a thick swath of dead leaves curled around Elsa’s foot, there was a blinding burst of green light that filled the room. Everything dead seemed to flinch away from it and Hans let out a cry of pain, falling back against his throne, covering his eyes like he had been blinded.   
Scara stepped forward, the grass under her feet turning a vibrant green and abruptly forgetting its tendencies to attack them. She fixed Hans with a piercing gaze.   
“You will not be killing any of us today.” The voice of Livet boomed, like a roll of spring thunder reverberating off the hills. Softly, the light began to retract until it settled tightly around Scara’s frame, making her appear to be swathed in green energy. “We are your sisters and we will stop you.”  
Standing up again, Hans looked at Scara like she were an unsightly smear on his immaculate suit. “And who are you, that you can make such a pretentious promise?” He asked, yanking his blade out of the bones beneath him.   
Scara just looked at him, Livet’s green light shining from her eyes.   
Hans blinked as the realization hit him.  
“You…”  
Scara stared up at him sadly, her eyes swimming in a mixture of sadness and hope, the green light slowly fading.  
For a moment, nothing moved as Life and Death silently spoke.  
Then Hans’ face hardened. “And where were you all these years?!” Hans let out a feral howl and wind began to whip around the base of his throne, spiraling tightly into a tornado. He launched himself at Scara, his blade whistling through the air only to hit an enormous ball of fire that knocked him off course. He crashed to the floor and was back on his feet a moment later, glaring at the summer host.  
Theo lowered her hands, breathing hard. “If you….wont come…..with us….peacefully…” She said pausing to gasp for air. “Then…we will have to take you….by force.”  
Hans twisted the sword, an ugly smile on his face. “I’d like to see you try…” He rose into a stance, his eyes narrowing.  
Elsa knew she should be doing something: attacking, trying to freeze him or run. But she couldn’t move, she couldn’t take her eyes off of him.  
So much pain, so much anguish and suffering.  
Lonely.  
A burning sensation in her hand snapped her out of it. Theo squeezed Elsa’s hand tightly.  
“Elsa! Snap out of it! We need you here now! Fighting!”  
The words had barely left her mouth before Hans was charging them, blade held above his head. Dropping Theo’s hand, Elsa jumped sideways with more agility than she was aware she possessed. Hans slid past her, turning on his heel and charging Theo instead. Elsa stamped her foot and ice spread rapidly across the floor. Theo masterfully skated backwards, using small bursts of flame to propel herself as Hans stumbled and slipped, falling to his knees. He rose shakily with a growl and plunged the sword into the ice under him. It shattered and turned to water, drenching the grassy floor. Hans whipped the sword back up, his eyes settling first on Theo standing to his right then on Elsa who was closer, on his left.  
“Elsa!” Theo shouted. She caught the queen’s gaze and an understanding flashed between them. In one smooth, practically choreographed moment, they threw up their hands, releasing opposing torrents of ice and fire.   
Elsa’s ice shards swallowed Theo’s flames and created a blinding steam cloud, eliminating visibility from the room.   
***  
Hans stood perfectly still as the steam enveloped him.   
So they wanted to play games did they? Foolish choice. He excelled at playing games. Hide and seek? He always found his brothers. No matter how hard they tried to give him the slip.  
He held his sword ready, the metal humming at his touch. It wanted blood. It wanted Death.  
A shape in the steam moved and Hans smirked. It was the fire-girl. He could tell by the plaintive moan of the demon in his head. She was one he could dispose of. He readied his sword, stepping silently through the fog. She didn’t move. Either she didn’t see him or she was waiting for him. Either way, he knew he could over-power her. Død had told him everything about summer: she was weak now. He was powerful.  
He readied his sword. Time to kill his first goddess.  
“Prince Hans!” Elsa called from somewhere behind him. Startled, he whipped around, swinging his sword in a wide arc through the air, slicing ineffectively through the steam. Several feet beyond the tip of his sword stood Queen Elsa, her black dress and white hair flaring in a breeze surrounding only her. She slowly raised her hands, her wind dispersing the steam. “This is for my sister!”  
The temperature in the entire room, fell dangerously low in the time it took Hans to draw a breath. Elsa turned her hands towards him, her powers setting her skin glowing a pale blue. Power such as she had never known, coursed through her. “Get down!” She called to Theo and Scara. The wall behind her was torn down by the howling fury of the blizzard winds as they crashed through the palace, the dead matter swirling on the winds. Elsa twisted her wrists and threw her arms forward, unleashing the churning winds. The storm slammed into Hans, knocking him off his feet and crashing into the throne. The sword flew out of his grip and landed point-down in the floor. The throne cracked and splintered as tiny blades of ice tore mercilessly at it, sending Hans tumbling across the floor to hit the wall. Just as suddenly as the blizzard had arisen, it faded, leaving the room clear and cold and covered in drifts of snow.   
Theo and Scara were both staring at Elsa: Scara with mild surprise and Theo with barely-concealed trepidation. Clearly Elsa had once again far exceeded their expectations of her.  
The remains of her attack still racing along her skin and across her nerves, Elsa lowered her hands, taking deep, hungry breaths. For a moment, one foolish, post-euphoric moment, Elsa thought she had won.  
Hans stood slowly, his back against the far wall. He kept his head down, as if accepting his defeat. But then Elsa heard it.  
He was laughing.  
Softly. Darkly.  
“You really shouldn’t have done that, my queen…”  
The entire palace shuddered and moaned. Overhead, the enormous ribs splintered and began to shift, sending carcasses cascading down and dead leaves fluttering around among the snow. “This is my dominion.” Hans said forebodingly. He slowly raised his head, his eyes shining maliciously. “All of these are mine.” The entire ceiling began to fall as the structure holding it up broke free and plummeted down. The sword vanished from its place stuck in the floor and reappeared in Hans’ hand. In one smooth motion, the King of Death swung the sword in a wide arc, twisting the point towards Elsa. Mid-air, the avalanche of dead matter, warped itself into a spiral around the ribcage, clinging to bone, a skin of leaves encasing the unconventional pieces, forming an enormous, headless whale. A dead recreation of a once magnificent beast.  
Silently, it charged Elsa.  
Elsa panicked. She threw up her hands and a thick wall of ice appeared in front of her. But the creature did not slow or hesitate. It had no life, no spark. Just death carried on an autumn breeze. A puppet.  
As it dashed through the air, all the snow Elsa had brought into the room followed in its wake, like bubbles in the ocean depths.  
Elsa had nowhere to run. She was trapped behind her own shield. As the whale flew at her, she saw flames licking at the heels of the undead beast as Theo desperately tried to help her. But it was too slow. The fire was eating it from the wrong end, doing little to slow it down.   
With a howl of bitter autumn wind, the creation slammed into Elsa’s ice, the impact shattering both it and the shield. Elsa threw up her hands and closed her eyes.   
Then the shockwave hit her and she was sent flying backwards.   
She crashed to the ground, rolled once, twice, grabbing desperately with her hands, trying to slow down…  
Her hands closed on something just as the floor vanished under her. Her body jerked to a halt, her arm screaming in protest as her entire weight suddenly hinged upon her fragile grip. She swung back and forth, kicking her legs ineffectively in the air around her.   
As her head cleared, Elsa became aware of several things. One: she was dangling over the edge of the throne room, how high off the ground she had no idea, hanging on the strength of some animal’s tibia that she had somehow managed to snatch. Two: the arm her life now depended on hurt like it was about to break, fires of exertion spreading rapidly from her shoulder to fingers. Three: she was completely at Hans’ mercy yet again. Once again reduced to nothing by his strength and manipulation.  
Then she looked down.  
***  
As the fight raged, the hosts battling and the spirits crying, none of them thought to look to the sky. If they had, they might have stopped.  
Above them, the sun went dark, eclipsed by the moon. The sky clouded over and lightning cracked the surface of the sea. Waves rolled and the wind swirled itself into endless storms, touching down and breaking up only to reform and begin the cycle again. Snow and sand and pollen and leaves all whirled endlessly on the breezes, blizzards colliding with thunderstorms, lightning striking foaming waves, leaves dancing with pollen on a waterspout.   
Inside and out, the storms raged.  
The seasons clashed. And the world wept.  
***  
Theo shook herself alert after the recoil of the shockwave sent her tumbling across the floor. Her world slowly came back into focus...only for her to find herself in her worst nightmare.   
She rose to her knees, trembling. “Merciful Mother…no…please no…”  
To her left was Elsa, barely holding on as she dangled over an impossibly high edge, unable to pull herself back up and quickly slipping. And on her right was Scara, alone in the post-collision haze against the strongest host of Død in centuries who had a murderous gleam in his eye and a blade rumored powerful enough to kill a spirit in his hands.  
Theo looked from one to the other, her time quickly running out.  
She couldn’t save them both.  
Theo clenched her fists but no fire was coming. Her mind refused to work. She couldn’t move, Branna wasn’t helping her. The Mother offered no command.  
How could she possibly choose?  
Hans advanced slowly on the youngest host as she sat up slowly, blinking as if in a daze. She was regressing again, Livet could not help her.  
Theo flinched, ready to dash forward but at that moment, Elsa let out a tiny whimper and her grip slipped that much more. Theo’s heart stopped and she glanced over her shoulder. The summer host was stuck again.  
Scara gazed steadily up at Hans as he stood above her, sword clenched in his hand. Hans smiled at her contemptuously, slowly raising his blade into the air like an executioner.  
Scara smiled back at him, but there was no mockery or malice in her gaze. “You wont harm me.” She stated, utterly unafraid.  
Hans’ resolve flickered, but only briefly. “That’s where you’re wrong.”  
“Scara!” Theo didn’t recognize her own voice as it tore from her throat.   
Hans brought the sword down.  
There was a clang of steel on steel.  
Theo stood and peered, trying to see through the last of the haze. There was someone else here…  
Hans scowled at the blockage. And the man holding his blade back.   
“You do not touch her.” Garret said, avoiding eye contact with Hans as he held back the sword with his axe. “I cannot allow you to harm any of them.” The Guardian was calm, completely at ease. He was defending his girls.   
Hans yanked his blade away and spun it in a deft circle at his side. “Well then, I’ll just have to kill you first.” He sneered at Garret.   
Theo had never been happier to see the Guardian in her life. “Garret!” She called to him, already turning to run towards the precipice. “That blade is cursed! Don’t let him touch you with it!”  
Garret pulled two knives from his belt. “I know.” He said. He stuck one of the knives in his teeth. He faced his opponent, keeping his eyes trained on Han’s torso.  
Turning her back on her Guardian, the summer host ran to save the woman she loved.   
***  
It was beautiful.   
The water far below, still and calm as a mirror, ice beginning to spread across the surface, locking it in place. She wasn’t doing that was she?  
She couldn’t be, it was too perfect. A perfect circle of ice, growing in never-ending concentric circles outwards.   
Like a mirror.  
What would it look like if she were to see it from the other side?  
She stretched out a hand…the water was calling…the ice was spreading, consuming her. It would be so easy to just let go…to slip away and sleep…  
A blazing heat erupted in her hand, quickly spreading all through her, making her feel lighter, better, stronger…  
“Elsa! Come on! Pull!”  
Her vertigo returned full-force as she realized Theonia was trying to pull her back over the cliff. Panicking, she scrabbled for Theo’s other hand, kicking with her legs and sending ice against the cliff to give her footholds.   
Theo tugged harder, throwing her entire body into the work. “Don’t give up on me!” She pleaded desperately, leaning back. “Come back, please!”  
With a final heave, Elsa was hauled back over the edge and to safety once again. The two of them fell back into the palace in a tangled heap, both of them breathing heavily.   
Theo tugged Elsa closer, burying her face in the ice queen’s braid. “You’re okay… you’re safe…” She murmured reassuringly.  
Elsa realized she was still trembling and breathed deeply, trying to calm herself down. Theo’s heart beat loud and fast in her ear, slowly resuming a normal rhythm that was soothing. For a moment, the world faded away and it was just the two of them. Laying there together.   
The chest under her head trembled. “I’m sorry.” Theo said.  
Elsa twisted to look at her. “For what?”  
Theo looked down at her, her eyes narrowed in concern. “For not coming sooner.”  
She brushed Elsa’s cheek with a hand that burned like flame. “You could have fallen…I could have lost you…” She pulled Elsa a little closer, squeezing her arm tightly.  
Elsa let out a hiss of pain and Theo let go of her so fast it was like she had vanished.   
They sat up and examined the aching limb, the one that had kept Elsa from falling. An enormous bruise was slowly coloring her upper and lower arm, spreading like a dusting of soot over her fair skin. Elsa tried to flex her muscles but they locked and protested violently.  
“Owww….”  
A warm hand gently closed over the bruise. “Take it easy…we still need you.”  
Elsa smiled. “No chance you’d let me sit the rest of this out?”  
Theo chuckled softly. “Nope. Sorry your Highness.”  
A scream made them both whirl around, jumping like they had been caught……doing other things.   
In the center of the room, Garret and Hans were clashing blades and exchanging blows. Scara was cowered against the only remaining pillar in the room, watching them and screaming as if in immense pain.   
Without even a glance to see Elsa following her, Theo ran to the younger host’s side. They raced around the crumbling floor, dodging the occasional falling carcass from the ceiling and slipping on the wet leaves underfoot.  
Scara was moaning softly to herself, covering her face and rocking back and forth.  
Theo fell to her knees next to the girl. “Scara…” she soothed, reaching out to touch her shoulder. Scara bit back a yell and a spark of green lightning jumped to Theo’s hand as she touched her. Theo jumped back, hissing in pain as a tiny spark of fire burned away the vines that had just attacked her hand out of nowhere.  
Scara didn’t seem to notice her sudden lack of control. “Make them stop!” She screamed, her hands over her ears. “Make the torment end!” Under her, the grass had sprung back to life and was growing and twisting into a thick mat of vegetation. A carcass next to her decayed rapidly into soil and sprouted new, twisting plants.   
“What’s wrong with her?” Elsa asked, watching Scara worry her lip with her teeth like she were a totally different person.   
Scara closed her eyes as green light started to spill from them again. “It’s too much…too much to bear!” she cried, breaking down and starting to sob.  
“She and Autumn are linked.” Theo said grimly, her hand bright red where Scara’s powers had attacked her. “She feels his pain and it’s making her lash out. Livet cant block it out without Død cooperating.” She glanced over at the dueling men. “And somehow I don’t think that’s going to be happening anytime soon.”   
Elsa followed her gaze. The two of them stared as the Guardian fought the Autumn host.   
Elsa had never seen Garret fight before. He moved with purpose, as lithely as a dancer, his axe an extension of his arm. He twirled his axe, blocking Hans’ strike at his neck and twisted his body, sliding the knife in towards Hans’ sword arm. The sword flashed and there was a ring of steel on steel. The two opponents backed away from each other, blades shining in the dull light.   
By contrast, Hans’ royal blood was apparent in his swordplay. His moves were calculating and powerful, aiming for his opponent’s torso and neck, trying to break through the defense presented by the Guardian’s axe and knives.   
They came at each other again, Hans moving to strike but finding his opening already gone as Garret caught the sword between his axe and knife. Snarling, Hans made a tickling motion with his free hand and the leaves under Garret’s feet began to move, creeping incredibly slowly along the Guardian’s foot.  
Garret looked down and shook the offending leaves away. But his momentary distraction was all Hans needed.   
In a furious flurry of movement, Hans knocked the dagger out of Garret’s left hand. Without even flinching, Garret plucked the spare from between his lips and continued fighting, the whole time never looking higher than Hans’ chest.  
“Why cant he just bond with him?” Elsa asked.  
“If he bonds with Hans, he wont be able to attack him to protect us.” Theo told her. “Hans would be free to use the sword with no one to stop him.” Theo watched as the duelers passed by them, blades ringing. “Once they’re bonded, the Guardian needs the host’s permission to restrain the spirit and momentarily stop her powers.”  
Elsa thought quickly. “But if he’s immobile while Garret’s binding to him, I can trap him!”  
“We’re all immobile while Garret’s binding…” Theo said quietly.  
Elsa thought back, recalling when Garret had had to paralyze Scara in her drawing room. “But…can’t he just restrain Hans?” She asked. “You know, knock him out or something?”  
Theo shook her head. “Not without risking Død taking over his form. Not while he’s holding that sword. If Død comes into full control with that in her hand while she’s this upset…” She trailed off but she didn’t need to finish her thought for Elsa to grasp the magnitude of this situation. “He’s gone insane with all of Død’s crying and distrustful of her forceful possession.” Theo said sadly. “We cannot reason with him anymore.”  
“We need to get that sword out of his hand.” Elsa decided.   
Hans made a series of powerful strikes to Garret’s axe then suddenly lunged, making the Guardian leap backwards. “He’s too powerful…” Theo said watching Garret struggle to keep hold of his axe while Hans continued to rain blows on him.  
Hans delivered a powerful strike, causing Garret to drop his axe. The Guardian bent backwards as Hans took a swipe at his head, the cursed blade whistling inches from Garret’s face. Garret rose and quickly parried with the knife, side-stepping towards his axe. Hans immediately drove him back.   
Theo stiffened. “He needs help…” She murmured. Flames burst to life in her hands but Elsa grabbed her shoulder, her wounded arm protesting.   
“You can’t hold him back on your own!” She shouted at Theonia, her voice sounding shrill. “you said it yourself, he’s too strong!”  
Theo turned to her, her eyes glowing in the heat of her fires. “I cant let Garret die out there!”  
Elsa squeezed her shoulder, her entire arm screaming at the effort. “Then let me come!”  
Theo shook Elsa’s hand off of her. “NO!” She burst out. The summer host took a quick, deep breath before continuing. “Just, stay here Elsa. Please.” The desperation in Theo’s voice gave Elsa pause. “I need you here to protect Scara and to be ready to restrain him. The second that sword leaves his grip, you lock him in ice.”  
Elsa nodded.   
Theo leapt forward, fire blazing at her hand. Her appearance was enough to startle Hans and he leapt backwards, leaving his side wide open. Garret rushed in, knife flying and suddenly the sword was flying out of Hans’ grip.   
Elsa readied her ice, trying to get a clear shot at the prince. But before the sword even touched the ground, Hans spun and a mighty gust of air whipped out in all directions, throwing his attackers away from him. Even at the distance she was standing, Elsa felt the force of it pushing her. She saw Theo hit the ground and roll twice before stopping, motionless.   
Elsa flinched, ready to run to her aid but a roar from Hans startled her attention back to the fight. Hans charged the fallen Guardian, sword already back in his grasp. Reacting faster than Elsa thought possible, Garret rolled onto his back, axe back in his hand and jammed his weapon under Hans’ descending blade, stopping his attack. For a moment they appeared to be at a standstill. But Hans had the advantage of being on his feet while Garret was stuck lying down. Ever so slowly, Hans was gaining the advantage.   
Hans snarled and his blade slid another inch down towards Garret’s neck. The Guardian didn’t flinch but his arms were trembling with exhaustion. He couldn’t hold on much longer.  
He was still avoiding eye contact. By looking at Elsa.  
Without thinking, Elsa fell into a position and let the power flow through her. The cooling sensation made her forget the pain in her arm. It raced out of her relaxed fingers, an enormous icicle colliding with the weapons each man held. Both went flying out of their grip.   
Garret took the opening to roll backwards and get to his feet. But he was weaponless now, crouched on the floor and panting hard.  
Hans turned his beady eyes on Elsa. “That’s never going to work…” He sneered. Hans flicked his wrist and the sword vanished from where it was still falling, reappearing in his hand. Without even looking away from her, he let it fall towards the Guardian.  
Elsa saw the sword descending, she saw Garret unable to look up to see it…   
“Garret!”   
Elsa didn’t even wait to see if he had turned to face her, she threw her hand towards him. The icicle formed in the air and Garret closed his hand around it without even sparing it a glance. Han’s blade collided with the ice and became wedged in it. In the split second before Hans could pull it free, Garret’s fist came up and rammed into the bottom of Han’s ribcage. Hans froze as if Elsa had just zapped him, all the air leaving his lungs. Tossing the icicle and the sword aside, Garret’s finger flashed to Han’s throat and delivered a quick jab to his Adam’s apple. He spun on his heel and brought his fist down on the host’s right hip. Hans twitched once and fell heavily. Still conscious but down for the count.   
Garret pushed Hans away from him and slowly rose to his feet, panting heavily. “And that…” He said with a wink at Elsa. “Is how you take down the Autumn host.”  
Elsa felt weak with relief. It was over. Finally, it was over.   
Leaving Hans where he was, Garret stood and retrieved his axe before going to make sure Scara was alright. The spring host was slowly uncovering her ears, blinking rapidly as if unsure where she was. Without hesitation, Elsa ran to Theo’s fallen form and gently placed a hand on the summer host’s back. She was still warm. Still breathing. Elsa felt her chest unclench, the relief reaching all the way up to her eyes, which started to water. Theo groaned and slowly rolled over. She blinked at Elsa’s face above her.  
“Did…did we…?”  
Elsa nodded. “Garret stopped him. We did it.” She’d never seen Theo look so relieved as she did at those words.   
She slowly helped the girl sit up, kneeling in front of her. “So now what?”  
“Now we take him back to the temple.” Theo said. “We convene the Council and we try to figure out just what the hell is happening here.” She gazed up at Elsa, a tiny, almost shy smile gracing her lips. “Thank you, Elsa. We couldn’t have done this without you…”  
“Stop.” Scara called suddenly.  
Elsa turned towards her. She was about to ask what Scara was talking about when something slammed into her. She heard Theo scream desperately and a sound like a sword slicing through thick air. She was sent sprawling across the floor of dead grass, rolling a good distance before she managed to stop herself again.   
Her aching body protesting and her wounded arm feeling numb, Elsa scrambled back to her feet, hands held up in defense. She didn’t know how much more of a beating she could take. How was Hans this strong?  
“Garret!” Theo’s frightened shout shattered the air in the destroyed throne room. Elsa blinked, trying to make sense of what she was seeing.   
The Guardian stood next to Theo over a crumpled Hans. His axe fell to the floor, landing with a soft thud in the dead grass carpet.  
The cut along his left arm was not deep but it sliced right across his scars from the other spirits. Blood dripped slowly from his fingers. A pulse of energy whipped through the air of the palace, making everyone shudder. Garret fell as the power of Autumn rushed through his body.  
Elsa did not see her move but Theo was suddenly under him, his body slamming into hers heavily. They both fell on the carpet, the Guardian wrapped securely in Theo’s arms.  
Before anything else could happen, Elsa took that opportunity to freeze Hans’ body in a giant block of ice.  
Garret chuckled lightly. “I guess the Mother’s Grace cant protect me against the famed Blade then…”  
Elsa realized then what had happened. Hans had tried to kill her again. Garret had stopped him.   
Scara raced up to the pair, falling to her knees beside the ice block containing a twitching Hans. She placed a gentle hand on the ice over where his shoulder was, as if trying to soothe him. She did not look towards Theo and Garret.   
The Guardian examined his wound with a tired fascination. “Finally sealed my bond with Autumn…” He remarked. Softly he began to mutter the words of binding. “I pledge my sword…my muscles…the blood in my veins to the King of Death…”   
“Shut up, Garret…” Theo said, tearing a long strip of her dress off to bind his arm. “You’ll be fine…Scara!” She called, a note of panic in her voice. “Scara get over here and…and reverse this…”  
“I cannot do anything without my flower…” Scara said softly, gazing sadly at where Hans’ sword lay on the floor. “…he’s fading.”  
Theo’s face twitched and she frantically busied herself with wrapping Garret’s wound. “then…we’ll… I’ll make a storm and we’ll fly home on the breeze, we can be there by dawn and Goren…Goren will fix this…!”  
A gentle hand stilled the summer host’s as she wrapped up his arm. “Theo.”   
His quiet voice seemed to calm the entire room. Even the wind felt softer, muted. Elsa found she could not look away.  
Garret smiled up at his first host. At the little girl he’d found wandering in the woods that had made him realize what he was meant for. “…this time…it wasn’t your fault…” He assured her. He reached a shaking hand up to gently stroke her face. His thumb ran under her eye, wiping away a stray tear. “don’t…blame…”  
His voice faded away. His hand slipped and came to rest on the dead grass beneath them. Scara raised her head, tears freely flowing down her cheeks and let a tiny keening moan escape her lips.  
Elsa stared in disbelief, unable to breathe. The Guardian was dead.   
The summer host was eerily still. For a moment, Elsa feared she too had passed on.  
Theo shakily raised one hand and brushed at Garret’s curls. Her breath came in short, hard gasps as she leaned over him, pressing her forehead to his and closing her eyes. For a moment, nothing moved in the destroyed throne room.   
Then Theo screamed and the entire castle burst into flames.


	14. A Storm on the Horizon

It had been storming all afternoon.  
Anna rested her head against the glass, watching the clouds shift and tumble, rain lashing down on the quiet little town below the castle.   
She was in her father’s study, the only room in the house where she could escape from the constant demands of being Arendelle’s Acting Reagent. Few people thought to look for her in here. Those that did knew better than to bother her right now.   
Lightning flashed outside and she recoiled instinctively. Her heart raced, silently counting down until the booming crash echoed around the castle, rattling the window with its intensity.   
Twelve…the same it’s been for the last hour…  
Anna took a few deep breaths, concentrating on the rain sluicing down the window and the hazy town beyond. She was alright. It was just a little storm…  
A furious little Autumn storm that refused to let up…  
The study was quiet and calm, a hopeless wish for what Anna wanted the weather to be doing right now. Her only companions: a cup of cold cocoa and a small plate of biscuits sat forlornly on the desk, a gentle reminder to herself that she should be eating, even if she wasn’t the slightest bit hungry.   
A tiny sigh escaped her as she watched the storm. Why did she decide she had to face this alone?  
“Princess?” She turned to the soft voice, trying to mask her fear with surprise at the interruption. Ichtaca stood quietly beside the sliding bookcase that hid a passageway down to her mother’s garden. He was as always, impeccably dressed in his palace uniform, his hands folded politely behind his back. If Anna hadn’t known the Informer, she would have assumed he was just another palace page boy, perhaps even the Head Page.  
The spy offered her a calm smile. “You called me, mum?” He always called her that, no matter how many times Anna asked him not to.  
Anna smiled at him, but the action felt forced. “Yes, Ichtaca. How is the search going?”  
“We’ve got all our ears open.” He replied. “Dagrun’s got the boys at the public library combing the records. If there’s anything in there about others like Elsa, we’ll find it.”  
The princess crossed the room, leaning against the front of her father’s mahogany desk that had not been used in years. “That was not the search I was referring to.” Anna told him, not unkindly. Elsa preferred not to use this room for her work as Queen. She would never say why.  
Ichtaca’s smile fell away and he lowered his head.   
“There is still no sign of Reba?” Anna guessed gently.   
The boy shook his head. “No mum, we’re doing all we can but she’s gone missin’. Dropped right off the map and no one seems ta have saw her go.”  
Lightning flashed behind Anna again and she gripped the wood under her hands tightly. “You really have no idea where she might be?” She asked, forcing her voice to stay calm as she silently counted. One…two…three…  
“Can’ say that I do, mum.” Ichtaca replied. “Reba knows this city bettern’ me. If she wanted ta disappear, she could.”  
As he finished speaking, Anna hit the count of twelve and like a chiming clock, the thunder rippled across the land.   
“And what of Christian and Lord Wilfred?” She asked, silently willing her heart to please slow down.  
But as her Informer opened his mouth to reply, a crash resounded through the study. Only this one came not from the storm outside but from the doorway.  
Both Anna and Ichtaca jumped as the commanding presence of Wulfric, the captain of the Arendelle guards burst into the room.   
“My lady Anna, so sorry for the intrusion…” The muscular man paused, one hand on his sword hilt as he bowed quickly and respectfully to Anna who quickly stood up and tried to look regal or at least not frightened.   
The Captain was a powerfully-built man with muscle bulging from his shoulders and arms leading down to a trim waist. Despite his brutish appearance, Wulfric was a calm, rational and as loyal a man as Arendelle could produce. All throughout the Great Freeze, he had never ceased or wavered in his service to his country and his queen. For that simple fact, Anna trusted him completely.   
Wulfric seemed startled to find a child in the room with Anna, one thick eyebrow arching in confusion as he looked at the Informer. Without missing a beat, Ichtaca lowered his head and backed into the corner, like an obedient messenger boy waiting to be dismissed. The Captain blinked but seemed to think nothing else of the boy. He turned back to the Princess, bowing his head slightly and placing one fist over his heart in a gesture of respect.  
“Your highness, a ship has entered our harbor. It flies the flag of the Southern Isles.”  
Anna went rigid. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw her Informer stiffen as well. Lightning flashed again outside.   
“Is it a merchant vessel?” Anna asked, as calmly as she could muster.  
Captain Wulfric shook his head. “No my lady, it…” He paused and drew a deep breath. “It is a war ship.”  
Anna’s mind raced. She didn’t even notice when the thunder crashed outside. She could feel both the Captain’s and Ichtaca’s eyes on her. Waiting for her decision.   
The weight of her situation hit her hard. No one else was here. Arendelle was facing a crisis and it all came down to her. Anna’s hand instinctively went to her hip but the sword wasn’t there. She couldn’t exactly wear it when acting as a diplomat.   
Thunder rumbled again outside, startling Anna from her panicked thoughts. For once in her life, she was grateful for the interruption.   
“Send an armed escort to Prince Christian’s quarters.” She told the Captain, surprised to find not the slightest waver in her voice. “He does not leave to speak to the ship without them accompanying him. Lord Wilfred is still here correct?”  
Wulfric nodded curtly, not noticing Ichtaca’s mirroring action over by the wall. “I believe so my lady…”  
“Detain him in his quarters,” Anna commanded, “he does not leave until I speak to him. Assemble as many troops as we can spare and send them down to the docks. Prepare defenses in case they try to fire or invade the shoreline. Your prime directive is to keep the people safe, do you understand?”  
The Captain seemed startled that such strategic orders were coming out of the mouth of the girl who had once accidentally wounded five of his best soldiers when she had attempted to swing from the chandelier to the banister and miscalculated completely. But his professionalism won in the end and he bowed and made his exit.  
Anna turned back to Ichtaca, her heart racing again. She swallowed hard. “You know what to do?” She asked him.  
The boy nodded, seeming a little pale. “I’ll go find Dagrun, we’ll have every Informer in the city ready to lead people out if we have to. And we’ll get a dock-hand near that ship right away.”  
Anna nodded weakly. “Then go. Be careful.”  
Ichtaca flashed her a smile that lacked its usual calm reassurance and slipped out behind the bookcase again.   
Anna turned back to the window, arms tightening around herself. The study was cool and empty, even more so than it had seemed before the news had arrived.   
Lightning flashed again and her grip tightened. The storm was picking up, leaves were whirling in tight spirals and rain pelted the windows. It was odd though, these clouds seemed to be stuck in one place. Anna cocked her head to the side, observing the sky through the curtains of rain. There was no wind pushing them, nothing to push them past Arendelle and out across the fjord. Instead the clouds hung over the kingdom, pouring out rain and colliding endlessly in sharp bursts of light and sound.   
The thunder came, ever-reliably 12 seconds after the flash and Anna was instantly reminded of hazy memories of crawling into her sister’s bed during storms, clutching the cool body next to her with trembling hands. Pleading quietly for the scary storm to stop.  
Elsa…   
Elsa had always found peace in the lightning. Somehow, the sharp cracks of light and the rumbling boom of the thunder brought a deep calm to her features, a calm that she had always effortlessly projected onto her frightened little sister.   
Anna shivered, trying to imagine her sister ‘s comforting words from so long ago.   
"They are just playing a game, Anna. The thunder is chasing his brother the lightning but his brother is too quick. Just a harmless game, we wouldn’t want to spoil it for them by being scared would we?"  
Anna wasn’t scared of the thunder or his faster brother. She had never been scared so long as Elsa was there to remind her why it wasn’t scary. But she was terrified of the storm brewing on Arendelle’s horizon. She was terrified of facing this storm alone.  
“Elsa…where are you?” She whispered as the rain and dead leaves battered the windows. “When are you coming back?”  
***  
At another window, Christian watched the ship that signified the start of change drop its anchor. It was small for a warship but the cargo more than made up for what it lacked in size. Months of planning were finally about to pay off. But several key pieces were still missing. If they did not arrive in time, all this could very quickly go to hell.  
The Southern Isles prince curled his hand into a fist, trying desperately to keep his temper and nerves in check.  
“Your plan better work little brother…” He said softly. “too much is at stake for you to fail again.”  
***  
The Mother was weeping the loss of her finest Guardian. At least, that was what the Head Counselor preferred to think.  
Logically, Theo knew that the world did not mourn the loss of the Guardian the same way it might the death of a powerful host. But the logical part of her had been smothered by the weight of recent events.   
As the autumn rain pounded down outside the temple, she descended alone into the bowels of the ancient building, clutching a haphazardly wrapped bundle to her chest. Branna lit a few of the torches as they passed, more out of sympathy than the need for light. Theo didn’t need the light to make her way down here. She knew the way even in the dark.   
Her footsteps echoed deafeningly on the stone steps as she descended the ancient stairwell to the very center of the foundation. Instead of a thick cornerstone, the building opened up into a large space supported by thick arches and unbreakable pillars. Here, was the Hall of the Guardian.  
In a rare break from the norm, Branna said nothing. But the legend stored in the spirit’s mind filtered into Theo’s mind anyway and consumed her consciousness: The Guardian was not a child of the Mother but he was still a spirit of her realm. There, he had been the fiercest of warriors, unmatched in battle and valor. In the time before the spirits were banished from their home realm, he had descended to the Earth, bent on finding a worthy opponent to test his skills and prove his invincibility. Instead, he met the Sorcerer. In a game of deceit and trickery, the Sorcerer had stolen the source of the Guardian’s power and pride: his beloved sword. The spirit died but his powers lived on in the body of the Sorcerer, who wielded the sword as his birthright, earning a place among the warriors of the world as a respected general. He had once been ruthless and cruel, using his stolen power as a means to dominate the humans of his time. But that all changed when the seasons were banished.   
The Mother came to him at that time, sending him a dream that tormented him for weeks. Finally, he left his kingdom, climbing high into the mountains with only the sword on his back, trying to escape the thoughts that kept him from sleep. At the summit of the West Mountain, he found four children. Four baby girls.   
The legend was sketchy at that point, (Branna had just taken a human host for the first time and was sleeping) but the outcome was clear.   
The sorcerer who had stolen the power of a warrior had an inexplicable change of heart. He placed his sword in the ground, gathered the babes to his chest and sat there protecting them. They became his girls: Erin of Summer, Kaya of Autumn, Ileana of Winter and Ava of Spring.   
With the wealth he had selfishly acquired, he built them a temple among those mountains that was of the Mother’s design.   
He lived a long, full life, protecting his girls selflessly, without a thought of his power or the kingdom he had abandoned. When the time came for him to die, the Mother came to him once again. He did not beg for forgiveness for his crime or appeal based on his repentance, rather, he asked to stay behind purely for her daughters, the hosts he had come to love as his own. Moved by his transformation, the Mother granted his wish.   
His soul was to be reincarnated each generation, just as the hosts were. Only he would be completely human, blessed by the Mother’s Grace to grant him powers in his mortality. His face and mannerisms may change but he would always be there. Protecting his charges in all of his lives.   
In that way, the Guardian never truly died.   
It was a truth that brought little comfort to Theo.  
The hall was dark and still, shrouded in tranquility and obscurity just as the Guardian himself had always been.   
Placing the bundle on the ground, Theo gently reached into it and withdrew the Guardian’s broadsword. The sword of the great warrior spirit, stolen by the Sorcerer. Wielded by her first friend.   
With slow steps, she crossed the hall until she reached the center of the room. Waiting for her, was a pedestal of pure black basalt with a single slit in the top. In the dim light, it shone with a dark kind of power. The sword responded to its presence, the edges of the blade glowing with soft white light and the handle vibrating slightly.  
Theo closed her eyes, drawing in a deep breath that barely seemed to fill her weighted chest. She raised Garret’s sword, the one he’d used to bond with all of them. Her arms trembled at the weight.   
The Guardian’s Rites had not been performed in nearly thirty generations of hosts. The previous Guardians had had better successes prolonging their lives during their duties or had completed the Rite themselves when they had failed to do so. It was only rarely that such a tragedy as the Guardian dying nobly during his service occurred. When that happened, it was the duty of the Head Counselor to carry out the Rite.   
Branna knew the words and she fed them to her host with the barest hints of remorse.   
“Great Mother,” Theo began in a soft voice, straining to hold the sword aloft. It was far heavier than it looked. “your loyal servant has returned to your embrace. He fought well, honorable to the end, protecting his charges with his very life,” A tear escaped and ran down her cheek. “…just as he promised. May you grant him the rest and peace he deserves before he takes up his task once more in a new form.”   
She slid the sword smoothly back into its pedestal, where it would remain until the next incarnation of the Guardian realized his birthright and came to receive the Mother’s Blessing. In the meantime, the hosts were left to defend themselves.   
Reunited with the sword, both began to glow with the soft white light that had filtered from the blade. The glow filled the room with a gentle, calming light. Turning away from the abandoned weapon, Theo crossed back to the bundle on the floor and unwrapped it completely. Then she picked up the axe and made her way further down the corridor.   
While the sword was their main weapon, each Guardian chose an additional weapon to represent him in the mythology of his predecessors, as a way of distinguishing and cataloging each of his lives.   
Garret’s had been his axe.   
At the end of the hall was a simple wooden door inlaid with a simple inscription written in a long-dead language. The Guardian’s Oath. Theo paused in front of it, her fragile hold on her emotions rapidly weakening.   
She’d spent many hours down here, in this hall by herself when she was younger and the world less complicated. Theo didn’t know what it was, but being around the history of Garret’s legacy was always comforting to her. Maybe it was just the knowledge that he had all that experience buried within him from his previous incarnations that he was using to protect them. And the knowledge that he was waiting for her back upstairs in the light.   
Theo’s grip on the axe tightened and she choked back a sob.  
Never again would he be there to greet her. He wouldn’t even be there when she died. He’d be reborn as another, with little to nothing of his past life left in his new body. A stranger filling the role of her dearest friend.  
She pushed open the door.  
Beyond it lay the vault of past Guardians. All that remained of the many incarnations of the Sorcerer.   
The summer host entered the memorial, her footsteps echoing on the stone floor. Branna breathed life into the torches on the wall, illuminating what lay on the floor of this room.  
Pressing a soft kiss to the handle of the axe, Theo placed it gently in the vault, in line with the descending spiral of the weapons of the previous Guardians: the bow of the previous Guardian, the dual knives of his predecessor, the boomerang of his predecessor, the spear of his predecessor and so on and so forth stretching back centuries, right down to the gauntlets of the first Guardian, Bartholomew the Unconquerable who had stolen from the gods.  
Here lay the ever-expanding map of the sacrifices the Guardians had made. Here was the only record of their legacy. They were never mentioned in legends in order to keep this final defense of the spirits protected. And so they died as they had lived: anonymous, mourned only by the all-too-human hosts who had to hold the grief of their loss.   
It was too much for Theo.   
The sand trickled into her hands but she could not summon the heat to melt it into glass. She did not want to return here. This place held nothing for her without her Guardian.   
The summer host fell to her knees, the sand swirling slowly around her as the tears freely fell. She could feel his hand brushing her cheek again, hear him struggling to say his final words… No… she tried with every ounce of her will to push the memory away, to bury as deeply as possible so it would stop tormenting her. As her other defenses fell in favor of fighting this battle, other repressed memories pushed their way forward, clamoring for prominence in her consciousness as she sat there helplessly in her sorrow...   
The angry face of her father, nursing yet another burn……"Get out! Get out you devil-spawn! You’re going to hurt him…!"...The sneer of an ice harvester as he shoved her harshly to the ground……"mark my words, that girl is unlucky…she’ll ruin us all"…The suffocating clarity of slipping under the ice…"you cannot die yet, my host"…The first friendly face she’d seen since Antony had left her…"I’m Garret. I think I’m supposed to stay with you." Unforgiving, ancient stone walls, silently watching them. A cheerful smile throwing light against them…"This will be our home now…you two will be my girls and I’ll be your Guardian."  
The sand stung her eyes. “It’s not home without you…”  
Garret had been forged in her fire back in those woods. Rescuing her from her own blaze had solidified his place in her life as the Guardian. Now, his body drifted as ash on the wind, courtesy of that same fire. He’d left nothing behind in this large empty hall of stone, nothing that could provide a suitable substitute for his comforting embrace, his aggravating humor and his infinite wisdom.   
Just like that cabin in the furthest corner of her memory and the icy lake where Antony had breathed his last, this home too had gone up in flames.   
***  
Elsa had always dealt with grief one way: by running and hiding from it and the inevitable backlash of her powers. But this time, there was something that made it impossible for her to curl up in a ball and cry.   
Perhaps it was the crippling shame.   
Elsa walked down the long corridors of the temple, not caring that she was getting herself hopelessly lost. Nothing seemed to matter much right now. She turned left again to find yet another unrecognizable corner leading down another non-descript hallway lit by tiny floating globes of fire. It was like being trapped in a maze.  
The trip back north to the temple had been a tense, silent affair. She and Scara had had to drag Theo away from the castle as it burned behind them, Elsa clearing a path with her ice and Scara using vines to pull the ice block that was Hans along.  
They’d had to leave the body behind.   
Elsa had formed a large ice platform and, with help from Scara, a strong breeze to take them North. Theo had collapsed on the ice, Garret’s weapons falling from her grip in order to run her hands all over the flawless surface absently, like a child.  
Elsa had found it hard to watch her.   
Even though she was the one steering, Elsa had not made the journey she really wanted to. So the group had skirted the edge of Arendelle and vanished into the mountains as the sunlight faded once more, plunging them into darkness. But even in the pitch darkness of a starless night, Elsa had found her way to the temple. She suspected Isen might have finally lent some form of help in the journey, although inside, she felt nothing. The guilt would not let her.   
"He died defending me."  
Every time that simple truth came to mind, it was like a punch in the stomach.  
She hadn’t known her Guardian for very long but he had effortlessly slid his way into her life, providing her with a sense of comfort and stability as her entire world shifted around her. He was a rock, a calm and reassuring presence amid tumultuous times. A keystone in an archway.  
And because of her, that support was gone. For all of them.  
So now Elsa wandered aimlessly, desperately trying to stop remembering the plume of smoke that had been the Guardians’ funeral pyre. She turned down yet another hallway, taking the staircase that she found blocking her path down into the depths of the temple. Snow crystals followed her, perhaps unconsciously leaving her a trail to follow.   
Elsa ran a hand along the wall as she descended the stairs. Being back in the temple was odd, but in no way comforting. It still felt like a prison. Ice spread where her hand touched the stone but she did not will it away.   
At the base of the staircase, she found a corridor marked only by several nondescript doors and a stone wall closing off the far end. Nowhere else to go.  
Unwilling to climb the stairs again, Elsa chose a door at random and stepped through it.  
Her first impression was that it was empty. But a few seconds later, her eyes adjusted and she could make out the contents of the room. A small sleeping pad that had clearly seen better days spread out in one corner. An ancient, thin bookshelf craning under the weight of several dozen books. A few hooks on the wall where several rags and spare black tunics hung limply.   
Although there was absolutely nothing distinguishing about it, Elsa just knew: This was Garret’s room.  
She stepped inside, her feet making a quiet tapping sound on the stone underneath. The room was dim and dark, as if nothing had lived here for decades. But there was no dust anywhere, a weak but distinct scent clung to the air. Elsa could imagine the Guardian coming up behind her, making a comment about his “humble abode” and asking her what was on her mind.   
The feeling was so strong that she had to turn around to remind herself that he was not there. He was gone.   
Her foot hit something and she looked down. A book sat next to Garret’s pillow, a tiny scrap of parchment sticking out of it to mark his place. Swallowing hard, Elsa leaned over and picked up the book, turning it over to read the title.   
The Price of Penalty by Edwin the Wise. The book he'd borrowed from her library all those months ago.  
He’d never finished it.  
Ice crept along the cover and for a moment, Elsa found she could not will it away. Tucking the book under her arm, she left the room and closed the door softly, as if afraid to disturb what little of Garret’s calm, protecting presence remained in the place of his dwelling.   
Back in the hallway, Elsa turned left and continued further into the depths of the temple. It was cool down here. A pleasant chill oozed from the walls, as if she had already coated them in ice. Reveling in the comfort of a foreign cold and running her fingers over the cover of the borrowed book, Elsa let her feet carry her to the door at the furthest end of the hall without thinking.   
A door that had been hidden behind a false stone wall that she could not possibly have known about.   
She did not remember the feel of the knob in her hand but suddenly she found herself in another room.   
Much like the Guardian’s humble abode, the room before her was devoid of any form of furniture or material comforts. The walls were made of stone, dank and dark in the half-light provided by a single slit window at the northern corner of the room. Opposite the door, a large faded curtain covered a sizable portion of the wall.   
For a moment, Elsa was reminded of her meditation space in the Arendelle dungeons and she shuddered.   
The only thing that made this room more comforting was something that should have made it less welcoming: It was noticeably colder in here than it had been in Garret’s room.   
Elsa took a step closer and felt a sudden icy draft upon her face. She blinked in surprise. The air wasn’t coming from the direction of the window or even the door…   
The cold was coming from whatever was under that sheet.   
She crossed the room in two hurried strides, coming to stand before the drab curtain hanging limply across the stone wall. The cold intensified, so much so that it would have been intolerable to anyone but her. Before her better judgment could kick in, Elsa yanked the cover away and threw it to the side.   
She froze.  
It was a mirror. An enormous slab of paper-thin ice that reflected the room and her own form with the precision of polished silver. It seemed to be hanging by itself in mid-air, not quite touching the wall behind it or the floor below it.   
The book slid from her hands and fell to the floor with a dull thud. Elsa barely noticed. She stepped forward and gazed at her reflection. Her usual desire to evade the sight was gone, buried by some long-suppressed desire to remember what she looked like…to See again…  
“Seers need a Portal…this one can be yours.”  
It is just my ice, child.  
“It is no different from a mirror…look into it…tell me what you see….I made it just for you…” The body smiled. “Maybe it will show you your home…”  
The body looked up, into eyes that were painfully icy-blue and deeper than the ocean…  
Vision returned in a rush. She could See again:  
…A young woman all alone in the dark, her hands over her ears, tears spilling down her face…  
You are home now my child. You must lead this Council as all your predecessors have.   
The child violently shook her head. “No, why me?”  
You were chosen, Theonia. It is your destiny to take this path. My Daughters need you in this time of change…  
“How can I save them…?”……   
Something new swam across her vision, dancing in her peripherals……A newborn with hair as black as night and hands that called the fire…a familiar soul that burned in her gaze…ragged breathing of one she had loved…  
“I see you’ve found Isen’s mirror.”  
Elsa snapped back to the present, her eyes skittered guiltily away from the mirror as if she had been doing something wrong. She turned to see Goren watching her from the door. “What is this?” She asked the troll, trying to get her heart rate back under control.  
“It’s called Isen’s Mirror of Truth.” Goren said, rolling forward to stand next to Elsa. “Like Død’s Blade of Death it holds properties of the spirit’s power.” He gazed at his own reflection for a moment but, unlike Elsa, appeared to see nothing but himself.  
“Do Branna and Livet have objects as well?” Elsa asked, curious.   
The troll looked up at her and she could see his breath billowing in the cold projected by the mirror. “Yes.” He answered her. “Branna’s is the Quill of Wisdom which is kept under lock in the library for inscribing the scriptures. Only Summer’s host can write with it and record the ancient legends, records, and secrets. Livet’s object is…harder to keep a hold of. Hers is the Flower of Healing and it pops up wherever it likes, usually independent of the host’s discretion, during the lull between each generation of hosts. Its power can be harnessed by any who know the Song. The host can find it and teach the Song if they so wish.”  
“And Hans’ sword?”   
Goren shuddered and took a step away from the mirror. But Elsa suspected his discomfort had less to do with his proximity to the mirror and more to do with the topic of their conversation. “The Blade can only be conjured from the Mother’s Realm by a powerful host of Død. It’s the ultimate weapon, killing all with a single touch. The Mother forbade Death from carrying it in human form unless approved by the Head Counselor. And usually, it’s never able to be harnessed properly without Livet’s Flower nearby.”  
Elsa turned back to the mirror, carefully avoiding looking at her own reflection this time. “What about this then?” She asked, gesturing at it.   
“It has been a permanent fixture here since Ileana conjured it into being from the Mother’s Realm.” Goren told her. “It is said that only the strongest of Isen’s hosts could gaze into the mirror and see the Truths of the Mother.”   
Elsa turned to look at him. “The what?”  
“The hidden truths that drive the cycle and reveal the unknown future.” The troll replied, his eyes glowing in wonder. “Isen was a Seer, the first and most powerful of those who saw the past, present and future. When she chose to come to this realm, her power dimmed but this mirror allows the host to unlock that power if they wish. All you have to do is look into it.”  
Elsa took a half step away from the enchanted ice. A Seer? The chance to see past, present, and future? “So why hasn’t Theo forced me to look into this?”  
Goren’s smile faded. “She doesn’t know it’s here.” He said simply.   
Elsa was surprised at his nonchalance. “You haven’t told her?”  
“It would only drive her crazy.” The troll replied. “Ileana created this and kept it secret from all but the trolls. Even Erin was not told. All the legends of its existence say Isen conjures a shadow of it in all her ice in times of great changes to try to see what truths she can. The scriptures make no record of this room or the fact that the Mirror is a physical object.” He gazed around the room, his eyes settling on the tiny window. “This is Isen’s Scrying room, a place only hosts of Isen and the trolls have entered. When Isen is Head Counselor, she typically leads her host down here on the Winter Solstice to gaze into the Mirror. Then they See.” He turned to Elsa and smiled expectantly at her. “Did she lead you here?”  
Elsa flinched. “No, I just…” She looked up into the reflection again. Her own piercing blue eyes staring hauntingly back at her. “I just found it…”  
“What do you see?” The troll asked eagerly, padding up next to her.   
Elsa stared at the polished, perfect surface, the portal for the Seer to see hidden truths and the cycle of fate. She looked into eyes too familiar to be strong. Piercing icy-blue eyes deeper than an ocean…“I see nothing.” The queen replied flatly. “Just my reflection.”  
“That isn’t nothing.” Goren tried to reassure her.   
Elsa turned away from the mirror. “Yes, it is.”


	15. The Council (minus Winter)

Some time later, the four were at last assembled in the chamber: Head Counselor Theonia, host of Branna the summer goddess at the head of the room, Hans of the Southern Isles, host of Død the autumn goddess at Theonia’s left with his hands bound in icy handcuffs, Scara, host of Livet the spring goddess at Theonia’s right and Queen Elsa of Arendelle, with the powers of Winter, opposite Theonia and closest to the door.   
Elsa swore that the feeling in this room could not be accurately described by any known words. Everyone was tense and silent, their respective powers simmering and crackling in the air. Scara’s hair kept dancing in an invisible breeze, small specs of pollen appearing in the haze air around her as she stroked the delicate leaves of a toad lily that had sprouted from the wood of the table in front of her. Hans was resting his hands on the table, fingers occasionally tapping into the silence. Several dead leaves swirled around the base of his chair rhythmically and where his finger touched the table, the wood began to look wet and rotting. He glared at Elsa from his place but could do little else with the cuffs on.   
Theo was easily the most unstable at the moment: her hair was constantly in motion from the breezes and the air around her was thick with a summer haze that stole its way across the table to engulf the others. There was no fire or sparks yet but she seemed only moments away from snapping and setting the entire table ablaze. Elsa glanced away as Theo looked up, distracting herself with controlling her own powers.   
Hers were more subdued but that was mostly from apprehension. She had no idea what was about to happen. A light frost flickered in the air behind her that she kept willing away.   
When the silence brooding had stretched on too long, Theo rose to her feet. She looked haggard and spent, tired beyond belief and with a dullness to her eyes that indicated she had recently been crying. The host of summer folded her hands and addressed her sibling hosts around her. “The Council is now convening.”  
Without preamble, Branna burst forth from Theo in a plume of reddish smoke causing the girl to shake and breathe heavily. The summer spirit hovered above her host’s shoulders like a shadow. Her form was smokier than it had been last time Elsa had sat at this table and she figured it was due to the coming winter. Livet flowed out from Scara and Elsa finally took in her full form: a beautiful woman with skin as green as tender spring buds and brown eyes full of rich earthy warmth. Her silky blonde hair was composed of flower petals and pollen grains and buzzed with the hum of life.   
Hans raised an eyebrow at the appearances but did not seem particularly surprised. Feeling Elsa’s gaze on him, he turned to her and sneered unpleasantly. Elsa glanced away and suddenly realized that everyone was looking at her expectantly. They were all expecting Isen to come forth.  
“Still nothing, Elsa?” Livet asked through Scara, sounding deeply sad. Elsa nodded stiffly and glanced over at Theo and Branna. Branna was glaring but to Elsa’s surprise, not at her. All her fury was focused down on her host. Theo was watching Elsa, her face contorted in such a way that made Elsa think she was holding back a grimace of pain.   
“Let my sister come forth.” Livet continued, addressing Hans now. “You cannot keep her from this council.”  
“I’m afraid that’s not up to me.” Hans said, sitting back in his chair and looking strangely unimpressed for addressing a spirit. “She says, she wont come out.” He glanced at Elsa, eyes narrowed challengingly. “Not unless her big sister comes to meet her.”  
Elsa looked away, guilt and shame squirming for dominance in her stomach. Anna’s face crossed her mind and she bit back a whimper.  
Theo spoke in Branna’s voice, drawing all the attention to them with a single word. “Tough.”  
The two spirits swirled above their hosts, becoming thick, formless clouds of smoke and pollen. Theo slowly stood, ashes and embers circling her frame. The haze she had been projecting melted away, sharpening to a charged wind that made the hairs on Elsa’s arms stand up. Elsa and Hans cowered away from the spirit as she grew in size, back to how she had appeared when Elsa first met her. A towering inferno of flames stretched upward towards the vaulted ceiling. Lightening crackled around the edges of the storm.  
“Sister of the autumn winds!” Theo howled in a voice that rumbled with thunder. “I command thee, as Head Councilor, in the Witness of the Mother, to show yourself at this Council! Let all who are awake come forth!”  
Hans winced, crying out in discomfort. He tugged vainly on the handcuffs, trying to snap the ice. His neck twisted at an odd angle, like something was grabbing it and forcing it in another direction than the one he wanted it to be in. His eyed rolled and briefly flashed the dull white color they had been in his palace. The prince bit down on his lip, blood trickling down his chin but he was losing the battle. A ghostly tornado of leaves slowly rose from Hans’ head, circling tightly. The spirit stretched, the leaves flexing in and out as if testing the air currents. Hans fell heavily on the table, his shoulders heaving.   
Next to him, Theo collapsed in her chair, pale and panting as Branna resumed her smoky form upon her shoulders, smoldering as if stewing in a combination of power and rage.   
The leaves whirling in the air slowly stilled, coming to form the shape of a womanly figure about the same size as Hans. Anything distinguishing about her however, was covered by the thick coat of leaves around her. Two dull white eyes peered out from the top of the figure, flickering around the room uneasily.   
“Now…” Branna said as Theo grimaced in pain and coughed heavily. “We can begin.”  
Hans slowly pushed himself back into a seated position, wiping the blood from his chin. He cast a fearful glance at the spirit clinging to his shoulders but said nothing.   
A bit of color returning to her face, Theo slowly rose to her feet and extended her arms to the rest of the room. Red light glowed in her eyes, swallowing her pupils. Flames sprung to life around the hall, each burning a different color. Elsa caught her breath, feeling the intense heat upon her face. Theo’s eyes blazed with red light and smoke poured from her mouth.  
Theo and Branna spoke as one, the words echoing in an eerie and potent blaze of fragility and burning passion. “By the Will of the Mother, which created the world and all in it. By Song of her eldest, the pure Isen which set the world turning, inspiring the Dance of the second twin, the boundless Livet which brought Life, prompting the Howl of her adoptive daughter, the powerful Branna that woke the skies and conjured the Breath of Død, the expelled twin, which began the cycle anew. The cycle gathers here now, to uphold the balance. To protect the Will.”   
Slowly, the flames burned out. Theo sat down gracefully, folding her arms as the light faded from her eyes.   
“We are here today to resolve this imbalance.” The Head Councilor said, glaring at a spot on the far wall somewhere between Hans and Elsa. “We are finally all here and we are going to discuss just what is happening that is causing the seasons to run rampant.”  
“I think we all know the reason…” Branna interrupted Theo. The smoky mass of the spirit shifted so that it was glaring at the spirit wrapped in leaves above Hans. The autumn spirit cowered, drawing in on itself until it looked like a formless ball of leaves.   
“Why do you hide your true form, Sister?” Livet asked softly. The spirit extended a single golden strand of her hair towards the autumn spirit. As soon as the hair touched the mass of leaves, it shriveled and turned brown, right down to the root. Død raised herself slightly, a head taking shape from the mass.   
“Show yourself!” Branna barked, making the other spirit flinch.   
“Where is Isen?” A soft, husky voice came from Han’s lips, the timbre too high to be his own. Han’s eyes widened in fear and he tried to cover his mouth with his cuffed hands. “I need my Isen!” The spirit managed to scream before he silenced her.   
“Make her stop doing that!” Hans shouted in his own voice as the spirit settled back into a formless mass, several leaves scratching the tabletop with a mournful skittering sound.  
“It is the only way she can speak.” Theo informed him.  
Hans glared. “Then maybe it’s best she keep silent.” He spat.  
Elsa flinched as Branna swelled to twice her size in an instantaneous blast of heat. “Such arrogance! We are goddesses, human. We turn the seasons and make your puny lives possible!”  
“And yet you need us to speak.”  
There was a painful, deafening silence at the table following Han’s words. Even the spirits seemed speechless. Hans sneered across the table, folding his hands and retreating inside himself. The air in the room thickened, a stench of decay creeping among the occupants. Elsa shivered but this felt infinitely weaker than the Breath at the palace had.   
“How is it that you are a host?” Elsa asked Hans, drawing the attention of everyone in the room. “I thought only women could be hosts?”  
Hans glared at her but offered nothing in response.  
“That is the big question.” They both turned to the summer spirit as it spoke. Branna smoldered on her hosts shoulders, her smoky form curling inward like a storm ready to break.  
“Hosts cannot be male.” Theo continued for the spirit. “It was a decree of the Mother, one of her First Four. In 115 generations, all of our predecessors have been female without fail. So why are you here now?”  
“Perhaps I was the only one worthy of wielding this power.” Hans replied smoothly. “Perhaps your mother decided it was time this power pass into the hands of someone who can use it properly.”   
Branna snarled, sounding like a sputtering flame exposed to water. Livet shifted uncomfortably, her hair swirling around her in a long arc.   
“And I thought one royal was bad…” Theo muttered darkly. “Now we have two…”  
Elsa was completely caught off guard by the statement. It was so angry and bitter, two emotions Theo had not directed at her in a long while. It felt like a slap in the face.  
“In your palace, you said you weren’t born like this…” Scara recalled, addressing Hans.   
“I wasn’t.”  
“So how did you come to be like this…Brother?” She looked around the table. “Do we call him that?”  
“How should I know how this demon chooses her host?” Hans snapped. “I’ve had this curse for as long as I can remember…always hanging over me.” He flexed his fingers, rotting more tiny circles on the wooden surface. “But according to my father, it was not immediately apparent from the day I was born…”  
“You discovered it on your own…” Elsa said softly, more to herself than to the table. Hans glared at her but she wasn’t paying attention to him. She remembered the first time she’d discovered her power, the day that Anna was born…  
/My hands…so cold…A perfect snowflake, hanging in the air…a tiny hand reaching for it…smiling…/  
But Hans’ power. She recoiled at the thought of a small child learning they could kill by touch. There was no beauty, no fun in that power.   
“Who was it?” Elsa asked Hans softly. “Who did you strike?”  
Hans visibly jumped and tried to jerk his hands free of the cuffs. Elsa was certain that if his hands had been free, his sword would have been back in his grip now and aimed at her throat.  
“Don’t try to be all kind and friendly with me! This is all your fault!” He moaned as his eyes started to glow a dull white, the spirit on his shoulders twisting and writhing as if it shared his pain.  
Elsa watching him, suppressing an urge to defend herself with icicles. “My fault?”  
“Maybe it’s best if you stay out of this Elsa.” Livet said gently, her narrow gaze focused on Hans as he slowly sank back into his seat.   
“What, why?” Elsa asked, surprised. “I was the only one he would talk to last time.”  
“And last time you did he attacked us.” Theo snapped at her. Elsa turned to face her, incredulous that the summer host was treating her like this again. Theo met her gaze challengingly, Branna mirroring her actions. “So unless Isen comes forth, I see no reason for you to speak at this Council.”   
“Garret would have let me speak.”  
The words were out before she even realized she wanted to say them. Elsa saw Theo’s fist clench and knew she was entering dangerous territory. Scara’s hands gripped the table tightly, tiny vines shooting across the wood. Even Hans was tense and still, all of them awaiting Theo’s response.   
“Garret…is….not….here.” Theo managed to say, gritting her teeth. The edge of the table under her hand caught fire and burned slowly.  
Elsa should have stopped there, she should have let the matter rest seeing just how short of a fuse the summer host had. But she couldn’t. Theo treating her like this again, like she had the first time they had met after they’d come so far…it hurt too much. “He would have at least allowed me a fair chance to speak my mind on this Council. To try to help.” Elsa replied, ignoring her instincts to shut up, ignoring the twisting hurt in her chest. “Not that you ever have.”  
Fully expecting a burst of fire to come hurtling at her, Elsa readied her ice to defend herself. She was not prepared for Theo to throw herself over the table and tackle her head on, screaming in blind rage without a flame in sight.  
Hands grabbed her shoulders and forced her backwards out of the chair. Elsa’s back slammed against the unforgiving stone wall of the chamber, Theo’s hands at her collar and her breath hot on her face. She felt her feet leave the ground and gasped in surprise. She’d never realized just how strong Theo was. Then again, she supposed she’d had to be to pull Elsa back up a cliff at the Death Palace.   
“What do you know?” Theo snarled, the spirit on her shoulders vanishing back into her in a smoky haze. “You who have spent your entire life having things handed to you, having people supporting you in everything!? You met him all of twice before we left to find Autumn. He was my first friend!” Theo pressed Elsa harder against the wall, her knee digging painfully into Elsa’s hip. “He saved my life and helped me control my powers! We gave Scara a home, we took Goren in when his family cast him out! I have carried this temple on my shoulders since the day Branna awakened and the whole time, Garret has been at my side.” Theo’s voice broke but she plowed on. “He has been my only counsel. Don’t you dare try to tell me what I should be doing! And don’t you ever tell me what he would have wanted! It’s your fault he’s gone!”  
Elsa crumpled, everything but her eyes going limp as the harsh truth hit her. When it came from her own mind, it was tolerable. She knew how to deal with self-loathing, self-pity, self-hatred. But those same words, coming from Theo cut deeper than anything she had inflicted upon herself.   
Elsa knew it showed in her face. She knew it was a sign of weakness, an opening to admit guilt. But she didn’t have the strength to hide it. It was true.   
“Theo!”  
Every head in the room, spirit or human shot up at the new voice. Goren the troll had somehow entered the room without any of them noticing him. He stood in the doorway, slowly shaking his head at the scene before him in disbelief.   
“Is this really how you honor the man who gave his life for you?” He asked Theo. The troll gazed around at all of them: at Scara looking on in fear, Hans twitching and glowering. “For all of you? By fighting amongst each other? This is not balance Theo, it is chaos.”  
Theo sagged and her grip on Elsa weakened. The Ice Queen slid to the floor, breathing hard with one hand on her bruised collarbone as Theo stepped away from her, her eyes burning with tears. Elsa looked up at her and saw just a flicker of regret in those eyes before they flicked away from her.   
“Chaos is all that remains.” Theo replied dully. She left the room, smoke and embers swirling in the air behind her.   
Elsa took that to mean the Council was over.   
***  
The lilies were dying.  
But he couldn’t help it, everything died around him. After a time, he’d just accepted it. He couldn’t walk through the palace gardens or else there would be an inevitable trail of destruction through them. His powers pressed all around him like a shield, flattening any plant and animal life in his wake.   
So now he just avoided any plant life and touched nothing with his bare hands. He’d learned to stop wandering around to avoid his father’s inevitable wrath.   
But when he’d left the Council hall, he’d found himself inexplicably drawn to this courtyard. This entire building seemed to have thoughts of its own, pulling him in whatever direction it deemed he needed to go. But why it thought he needed to be in the middle of a garden full of so many vulnerable, living plants was something he’d never understand.   
Hans walked away from the now-wilted lilies, clenching his fists as if that would help him control his powers. The hanging wisteria he brushed past jumped away from his touch, browning instantly and hanging limply. He would destroy this entire place if he stayed. But why not? He’d eventually destroy it anyway. Such was the nature of his curse. It knew no bounds.  
“I know it’s you!” A cheerful voice called from around a flowering bush on his left, making his head snap up. “You don’t need to hide from me.”   
Hans came out from behind the hydrangeas, the flowers breathing an almost audible sigh of relief as his wilting presence faded from them.   
“I guess I cant exactly sneak up on you.” He said drily to Scara. She didn’t look his way, keeping her focus on a small bed of lilacs she was tending. Her motions were soft and careful, she hummed gently as she worked, tiny grains of pollen flickering in the air around her. She swirled her fingers around the empty patches in the soil and more lilacs sprouted and flowered, their scent permeating the air.   
Hans found a genuine smile pulling at his face as he watched her. There was something…magnetic about this girl. Once he’d calmed his demonic tendency to murder her.   
“I feel you coming.” Scara said as casually as if they were discussing the weather. “Your spirit projects around you.”  
Hans snorted. “That’s just everything dying around me.”   
Scara straightened up, turning to face him. The intense color of her green eyes momentarily stunned the prince. “That is your gift.” Scara told him, smiling.  
“Call it what it is, a curse.” Hans felt something brush his sleeve and recoiled. The unfortunate frond of a potted fern shriveled at his proximity. “I kill everything that touches me, things lose their vigor in my presence.”  
“A curse is only a gift that hasn’t been utilized properly.” Scara replied.  
Hans scoffed. “Where did you hear that?”  
“Livet told me.” The girl bent over again and tidied a small patch of empty soil. Her long yellow hair fell past her face, brushing the dirt gently. Grass grew under the touch. “She has odd things to say like that sometimes…”  
Hans shifted uncomfortably, the handcuffs biting into his skin. “Well mine tends to only mumble nonsense or cry for her sisters…”  
Scara beamed, her smile affecting Hans more than he was willing to admit. “So you have spoken to her!”  
Hans smiled but his was a dry, humorous one. “Not so much spoken as listened.” His gaze darkened, “And then she takes control of my mind and forces her feelings on me.”  
“That is why we must hold the spirits.” Scara told him, as if it were obvious. “They cannot handle their own emotions in this world.”  
Hans shook his cuffs at her. “Did yours ever make you do something you never wanted to?” He snapped. “Take control of you and hurt someone you loved? She has done this to me my whole life! Her feelings are causing me real pain.”  
Scara didn’t move throughout his outburst. Her eyes didn’t shine with pity or flash with fear. Instead, she looked at him as if she were searching for something in the outburst.   
“Livet and I have come to an agreement.” The spring host said after a careful pause. “We have bonded during our shared time in this body. It helps stabilize our power.” She glanced at the cuffs then back up at his face. “It would work with Død too if you just…”  
“I am not letting that…that unholy demon have any more control over me than she already has!” Hans shouted, ignoring the gut-wrenching wail the spirit in his head let out. “You have no idea what she has taken from me!”  
Scara was silent again, giving him his moment to vent. She reached around him, making him flinch away from her and gently touched a wilted hydrangea flower. It burst into glorious bloom under her caress. Hans felt the same action create a bloom of envy within him. “I come out here when I need to make sense of my emotions.” Scara told him, pulling her hand back. She touched the tips of her fingers together very carefully, making sure her fingertips lined up. “Why I feel the way Livet does…why we both feel and what it does to us.”  
Hans suddenly realized how young this girl must be. Where he was nearing his twenty-third birthday, she was barely on the cusp of seventeen, her face still round, her step still light. He was a full foot and a half taller than her. But she understood what it was to be like him, perhaps even more than he did. To have this power…to feel this way.  
“And what do you need to make sense of today?” He asked her, for once actually managing not to sound mocking or patronizing.   
If Scara noticed his change in demeanor, she didn’t show it. “Ever since Livet awakened, I’ve been waiting for you.” She admitted. “Not growing, not changing, not living, just…waiting.” She looked away, walking around the lilac bed to the peach saplings on the other side. They bloomed with her presence, the smallest of them growing a few inches as she ran a hand down the length of its trunk.  
“And now that you’re finally here…I don’t know. I thought everything would make sense at last. But it doesn’t.”  
The peach sapling in her hand strained to keep growing, its trunk thickening under her hand. Scara watched it with a sad resignation.   
“I can’t control the growth. They all just respond like this. Anything I’m around bursts with too much life. The forest becomes overgrown and tangled with undergrowth whenever I walk through it in spring time. I reanimate recently dead animals and have to watch them limp away, alive without the grace of death to end their suffering. Nothing dies around me. More just comes, cramming in every space, never fading or moving on.” She plucked a leaf from the sapling and in her hand, it sprouted into a whole new plant. “Livet said once you were here, our gift would balance out and I’d be better able to guide the process.” Scara continued, dropping the creation where it fell. “But nothing’s changed.” Throughout her whole speech, she seemed distant, almost as if she wasn’t aware of his presence. But she never sounded sad.  
Scara turned to Hans, meeting his gaze shyly. “You’re not really here, not until Død is with you. Until you two are like me and Livet.” It should have sounded like an accusation. But she said it gently, so innocently that he couldn’t believe for an instant that she blamed him for her lot.   
The lilacs between them drooped as Hans’ jaw clenched. Scara raised a finger at them and they slowly stood back up.   
“It feels like I’m still waiting.” Scara admitted, looking away from him.   
Hans remembered the moment he’d first laid eyes on her in his palace. The rage that had flowed from the demon within him to poison him as she recognized her other half, the one that could have kept her under control, saved her from this terrible fate of sharing his body. But watching her now, he felt no anger, not even from the unstable goddess of death in his soul. Being around her was comforting. So long as she was here, the damage he did could be reversed. She could keep him under control. Even the spirit in his head, angry and vicious though it was, became muted somewhat as he watched her coax life back into the lilacs he had killed.   
“I suppose…” He admitted, his voice going soft. “I’ve been waiting for you too.” They were both looking at the lilacs. But Hans swore he could feel her smile.  
“Scara!” Both of them whirled, not realizing another had joined them.   
A deep disappointment at being interrupted washed through the autumn host but he hid it behind an unfriendly sneer. It was her.  
Theo’s hair snapped in the hot breeze she was projecting around the courtyard. “Don’t talk to him.” She said to the spring host in a clipped voice. “Go inside.”  
Scara picked up a small pot with a waving fern inside it and crossed slowly to where the other girl was standing. When she reached her however, she paused. “You cannot keep me from him, Theo.” She told the summer host. “He and I are bonded. Two sides of the same coin.” She leaned closer, her voice dropping to a whisper that Hans heard nonetheless. “He needs my help.”  
Although her shoulders remained rigid, Theo’s face softened slightly at Scara’s words. “There will be a time for that.” Theo replied softly. “Just not now.”  
Scara left but she shot a look over her shoulder at Hans that was all at once helplessly innocent and full of wisdom beyond her years. Hans felt a tremor go through him and he looked away. Why did she do this to him?  
As Theo approached, he rearranged his face back into its confident smirk.  
“Eager to speak to me alone, aren’t you?” He said to her as she approached, a hot breeze whipping him in the face. He briefly wondered if standing close enough to her for a long enough time would melt Elsa’s cuffs off of him.   
Theo glared at him as if reading his thoughts and the wind slowly faded. “I am ‘eager’ to see this whole thing cleared up and the world regain some semblance of meaning again.” She told him, her eyes like chips of red-hot iron. “The fact that you are the only way to do that is merely the painful medicine I must swallow to accomplish this.”  
Hans raised his arms, enunciating the icy cuffs holding him back. “Doesn’t seem that hard to keep me in check when Elsa’s around.” He made a mental note of how mentioning the Queen of Arendelle made the girl twitch. He gestured at the blooming garden around them. “And Scara does wonders to reverse my curse. I think she and I could become good friends.” He found he didn’t need to lie making that statement.  
“You’re not befriending her. You’re using her.” Hans’ false smile slipped away at Theo’s biting words. “I know what kind of man you are. I know your story.”  
Hans laughed darkly. “You know nothing of me.”   
The two of them stood several feet apart, an uneasy mixture of summer haze and autumn chill churning in the air between them.   
“Prince Hans of the Southern Isles.” Theo recited suddenly, making said prince’s blood run cold. “13th in line for his crown, youngest of the king’s 14 sons. Born in late fall approximately 23 years ago.” She smirked at his fury. “I write the records.”  
Hans was quiet but the rapidly drying bush behind him reflected the strength of his feelings. “The Mother finally decided it was time to help us find you.” Theo continued. “Just after the Council, she gave me a vision of your childhood.”  
Hans raised an eyebrow. “Oh did she?”  
“You’re not even aware of this are you? Of how you became Død’s host?”   
“She has not granted me the pleasure of that knowledge.”  
Theo made a motion with her hand as if she were tracing a quill along written words, trying to recall them. “There was a child,” she began after a moment “a little girl born as Død’s host in the Isles 23 years ago. She was named Anya and I believe she was the child of a palace servant. But your father had her put to death four days later, believing her to be a witch as her powers manifested. Unsettled, Død had no choice but to manifest in the next youngest in close proximity who was strong enough to bare it. And that happened to be you, the unlucky thirteenth son, born not four days prior.” The bush behind Hans was nude and bare now, he could feel it. The lilacs started to droop.   
Theo took notice but continued her tale. “But spirits are not meant to manifest in the male form and so she was forced awake too soon, practically the day she entered you. You’ve been fighting for dominance ever since, hiding your abilities under gloves, touching only when absolutely necessary, hiding alone when the winds of Autumn begin to blow. You grew up spoiled and selfish, everyone afraid of the curse you seemed to carry. You pushed Død to the furthest corner of you mind, driving the both of you mad in the process. And then one day, the spirit couldn’t take it anymore. She burst free of your suppression and sent shudders of death pulsing across the land, killing the father who had kept you imprisoned, cursing the land to go barren. So you ran. You made yourself King of Death and removed yourself to the wilderness to build your throne. And as you waited alone, you let your anger and fury grow and let it control you. You gave into your desire for revenge and let it corrupt the spirit within you. You summoned the sword and decided you would kill those Sisters that were so dear to the spirit within you.”  
“I had a rather good role model to follow.” Hans said as casually as he could with these new revelations and bitter memories burning in him. “Queen Elsa did abandon her kingdom and throw herself into isolation to deal with her powers. It seemed to work out fine for her.”   
Theo’s jaw clenched and several grains of sand floated in the air around her. “You are nothing like Elsa.”  
Hans smirked. “I think you’ll find she and I have more in common than…” Theo interrupted him with a harsh laugh.   
“You? You’re a spoiled prince who couldn’t charm anyone to ally with you so you stormed off to the mountains and hid like a child. You were planning to use your power to assert yourself over others, not just the other spirits.”  
Hans’ smile had faded. He couldn’t win this with charm or arrogance. He switched tactics. “Just like you.”  
His statement had the desired effect. Theo went rigid, her eyes narrowing. “We are in no way the same.” She spat.   
“Did you not force me into submission just now in the Council? How is that any different than me asserting my dominance with my curse?”  
Theo was silent, her revulsion at the comparison apparent in her expression.   
“And now, we’re both alone.” Hans observed. “How could anyone understand what you have been through?” He asked her, pacing around her still form. “How much you suffer everyday just to hold this council together…how much you sacrifice to restore balance?” He saw her tremble and went in for the kill. “And now you’ve lost your only ally.”  
“I still blame you for that.” Theo replied, her voice shaking as she glared.   
Hans shrugged. “You shouldn’t, it was Død who cursed the blade and drove me mad. I was aiming for Elsa.” He watched her twitch silently for a moment, gauging her reaction. “Do you know what set Død off this time? Why I cast a curse over my homeland and ran away?” He waited several seconds, letting the silence stretch. “It was her.”  
Theo didn’t have to ask who.   
“Elsa and her sister humiliated me. They sent me back to my brothers in shame and my brothers took it out in the worst way possible. They had been waiting for an excuse to punish me and Elsa handed them one. Up until then, I had it under control. Like you said, I wore gloves all the time and avoided touching anything. And it was working, by cutting off my emotions and only pretending to care, I stopped the curse of death from spreading around me. But when I returned after Elsa’s humiliating send-off, back into the unrestrained torment of my brothers and my father, my control slowly unraveled. The gloves became useless.  
“My father was ready to have me executed after our crops failed again. But that was the very thing that sealed his fate. One insult, one outburst too many and I snapped. I killed him with the Breath…the very Breath that stole across my homeland, bringing sickness and death in its wake.” His fists clenched even as he tried to keep his face impassive. “I cant go back there. Leaving was the only way to take the Breath with me, to keep it contained so it wouldn’t destroy my home.”  
“So did you hope to learn to control it?” Theo asked skeptically. “As Elsa has?”  
Hans shrugged. “It was a vague delusion of mine for a little while. But I soon abandoned that. I don’t know for sure how Elsa achieved her fine control. I could never emulate it.”  
“She says love.”  
Hans actually laughed.  
“I think there’s more to it than that.” He walked away from her, towards the carefully potted ferns that were nearly as tall as he was. “You know…there were rumors about Arendelle. Growing up, I heard a lot about that reclusive kingdom.” He lifted his hands and the edges of the ferns began to curl. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Theo stiffen but she made no move to stop him. “Some say they were favored by the gods. That’s why they were so prosperous despite their small size. Others said their king and queen had dabblings in dark magics, even dealings with trolls. Many believed that they were thieves of higher powers…”  
“Higher powers cannot be stolen from.” Theo interrupted stubbornly. Hans paused, his fingers caressing the brittle frond of the dead fern before him. It crumbled under his touch.  
“Did your warrior friend not steal his power from a spirit once?” He inquired. “Several lifetimes ago perhaps?”  
The summer host seemed shocked. “How could you possibly know that legend?”  
“The Southern Isles has an extensive library…” Hans said. “As I’m sure you saw in your visions, I spent many hours there as a child. And many a travelling bard has been known to tell stories of a god-like warrior-king who abandoned his country for some endless task in the wilds. Some of those same bards claim the man was an ancient king of the Isles. It wasn’t too hard to figure out once I met your little protector. No mere mortal man could have held his own against me for that long.”  
Theo was quiet, examining the ground as if it could answer for her. Hans took her silence as an invitation to continue.   
“So it is not impossible. Powers can be stolen. Spirits can die.” He smirked. “Perhaps Elsa is lying when she says she cannot wake Isen…”   
Theo’s head snapped up, sparks dancing at her fingertips. “Do not speak such lies…” She hissed at him.  
“Have you any evidence to prove she is not lying?” Hans asked innocently.  
Theo was silent.   
“She must have stolen the power somehow.” Hans concluded, the fern crumbling to dust as it gave up its fragile hold on life. As it succumbed to his terrible power.  
***  
As Hans spoke, the legend of the Sorcerer sprung, unbidden to Theo’s mind and she hastily pushed it away. The Warrior had been different from the Mother’s daughters; he was not protected by the Mother’s Grace. His power had been lost in a contest of wits and stolen through ancient sorcery that no longer existed. And he had merely been a servant of a higher spirit, not a child of the Mother herself.   
A season couldn’t have their power stolen.  
Could it?  
Smoke swirled around her as she thought. As much as she hated the explanation, it would explain so much: Isen’s silence, Elsa’s fine control, the absence of her name from the scroll for so many years. The enigma of the Snow Queen was finally being resolved with this dark possibility.   
Hans was still speaking, apparently relishing his theory. “Elsa’s parents must have had something to do with it of course. Why else would they have locked her away for so long, keeping her a secret from the world? They could not control the monster they had created so they decided isolation would cure her of the power…”   
Theo shook her head violently. She would not allow herself to be persuaded by his slick words. His words were nothing more than myths and speculation. Elsa couldn’t have stolen her icy magic…  
…Because if Elsa wasn’t the host…that could mean…  
“Enough!” Theo shouted, seeing Hans opening his mouth to continue talking. “I will hear no more of this. You are in my home now and you will not speak to me of such things! You will obey my commands and you will stay away from Scara.”   
Hans only smiled at her without a single inkling of respect. Theo bristled, her summer wind returning. Why did no one listen to her?  
“Why do you care for her so deeply?” Hans asked her, startling her. Surely he couldn’t know… “Scara, I mean.” Hans continued.  
Unsure if she felt relieved or conflicted about which person he had meant, Theo replied: “She is my sister host.”  
The autumn host took a step closer, his gaze arrogant and unwavering. “This is a little deeper than just that.” Theo held her ground as he came close, close enough for his breath to wash across her face as he peered at her. The prince’s face softened into mock pity. “You lost someone…didn’t you?”  
“You know nothing of my life!” Theo spat, hating how this conversation had somehow come full circle and been turned on its head.   
His smirk returned. “Ah…so you have…”  
The summer host fought to control the rising blaze of sadness in her, the faces that swam into her memory. “I have lost many…” She admitted. “One more than I should have thanks to you. I will not lose her.”  
Hans shrugged. “You don’t have to. I am not planning to harm either of you.”  
“This coming from the man who was threatening us with the Blade of Death in his palace.”  
“The spirit was upset, she wanted to destroy…you know the tantrums Death can bring when it’s in the mood…”  
Images and legends sprang to her mind from that of the summer goddess. Proof of his words that she did not want.  
“Death feels every imbalance,” Hans continued as she fought the onslaught of Branna’s endless knowledge. “she has been crying for years…practically since she came to share my body. What happened in Arendelle a few months ago was merely the final tipping point. You said yourself that my anger corrupts her. Well, Elsa is to blame for my rage and the spirit feeds on that rage, driving us both mad for revenge. Until the imbalance caused by Elsa is removed, she will not cease her tantrums. I will not cease my fury.”   
Theo was breathing heavily now, the thoughts under control but his words quickly taking their place. Everything he said hurt worse than any physical torture Branna had inflicted on her.  
“You want to restore balance, you want to tame me, you want to protect Scara and your precious temple…” Hans continued but the words could have just as well come from the spirit inside her head. “I think you fail to notice that all this can be accomplished with one simple task.”  
Hans knew he had won. She could tell that he saw it. He could see it in her posture, the blank look in her eyes, the way she cowered and shivered at his words.   
Theo let out a long desperate sigh. “And what task is that?” She asked, raising her head to look Hans in the eye.   
The prince smirked. “We have to take away what Elsa loves most. And force her to suffer as we have.”  
Theo closed her eyes as memories of months of agony revisited her. She had known that since she’d first heard the name.  
***  
“No. I wont.”   
You know what has to be done. It is what I have been telling you for months.  
Theo was pacing in her mediation room, the soot on the walls peeling off layer by layer and circling tightly around her. She’d left Hans in the garden a few minutes ago, needing to be alone to contemplate this. “How am I expected to do this?” She cried, hot fingers running through her hair, not noticing how the action was singeing off the locks that had begun to grow. “After everything that has happened?”   
I loathe admitting it but Hans is right. Elsa must be subdued for balance to return. Either we must wake Isen through great tragedy or Hans’ theory is correct and Elsa somehow stole my sister’s powers…  
“Wouldn’t you have felt it if Isen had been harmed or killed?” Theo shouted. “Shouldn’t you know? You seem to know everything else!”  
We didn’t feel Død’s last host die. Even the records did not show it. And Elsa would have been born around the same time as you. I was sleeping then, I would not have felt it.  
“Well that’s just great! So you don’t even know?!”  
We can find out.  
“Is this really the only way?”  
…Yes.  
Theo shouted in frustration, a burst of fire flying out from her and scorching the walls of the chamber. The explosion drained her and she stumbled, struggling to stay on her feet. Branna stayed silent through her outburst, letting her host catch her breath and finally think. Theo leaned heavily on the wall, exhaustion, pain and her emotions welding together into a yoke denser than iron that hung heavily on her.   
Enough. One way or another, this had to end. She was sick of Branna’s lofty commands, of the never-ending pain her rebellion was causing her, of the endless sacrifices she had made. All of them for Elsa. Elsa. ELSA.  
Elsa who remained ungrateful and oblivious to the damage she was causing. Elsa who broke every rule and left her to pick up the pieces. Elsa who understood the burdens of leadership and listened with such compassion and sympathy…  
Theo sobbed drily, burying her eyes in her hands, smearing soot all over her face. But despite everything, she still couldn’t fold. She couldn’t stop protecting what she cared about. Even at the expense of the world.  
Elsa meant too much to her.  
The idea came out of nowhere, like a gift from the Mother herself. “Maybe there is another way…”  
Branna was silent. She’d already seen the idea take shape in the mind they shared. Theo took this as an invitation to let the idea expand.  
“He could…couldn’t he?” It was a way out of a painful burden. A saving grace. So why didn’t it make her feel better?  
He undoubtedly wants his revenge on Elsa. Given that he suggested it, I have no doubt he would complete the task gratefully. But only if you are willing to risk letting him loose.  
“We can handle Hans.”  
Do not be so arrogant, Theonia. If he turns on us, we would not be able to handle him. He has already proven he is unstable and powerful and we are weak as the solstice approaches. Once we release him from the cuffs he could very well summon his Blade and cut us down.  
“And if he doesn’t?”  
If he doesn’t, this plan might just solve all our problems. But we must approach this carefully.  
Theo slid to the floor in a heap, her arms around her knees. “So what are you proposing?”  
We can offer him his chance at revenge…it will secure for us what we want: we will know of Isen’s whereabouts and then be able to control Død.   
“What about Hans? He will be harder to convince than the spirit.”  
When the time is right…he must be killed.  
“Is that your solution to everything?” Theo asked humorlessly even though the spirit ignored her entirely.  
We must have a female host for our sister…Hans has done nothing but harm us all. If he remains the King of Death…nothing will be spared. Autumn will just have to manifest again in a proper host body. It will give us more time to correct Isen’s imbalance.  
Sand began to trickle from Theo’s fingers. She watched it pool and form tiny dunes around her, filling in the cracks in the floor and mixing with her soot. “So why not just kill him now?”  
It would not solve our issue with Elsa. I thought you wanted to use him to avoid this particular task?  
Theo flinched at the spirit’s wording, true though it was. “If…if Elsa really isn’t a host…” Theo began, wondering if she really wanted to know the answer to the other question that had been brewing in her mind, “if she’s just…Elsa. That…that would mean her feelings…they’d be real. Right? Not just the attraction between you and Isen…”  
Branna paused long enough for Theo to realize she’d caught the spirit by surprise. Despite her own legendary love story, Branna couldn’t seem to fathom Theo’s continuing obsession with the Queen of Arendelle.  
Now is not the time to think such things, Theonia. You may have to kill her too.  
Theo sat up in surprise, the tiny desert around her abruptly melting into lumpy, molten glass. “What? Why?”  
If she has stolen the powers of a goddess, even unintentionally or without consent…there is no penalty other than death.  
Her panic returned, breathing became a chore. “No…no…” She clasped her hands over her ears, as if that could somehow dampen the voice in her head.   
Theonia…  
The spirit had the nerve to actually sound concerned.   
“I cant do it!” The host leapt to her feet, walking barefoot on the liquid glass. She didn’t even feel the heat through her agitation and fear. “You are asking too much! How can I possibly cause intentional harm to her, let alone kill her?” She stopped, sinking up to her ankles in the hot liquid, glass hardening and spreading around her the same way Elsa’s ice did. “I can’t…it would destroy me…I’d have to rip my own heart out and burn it to nothing…that’s the only way I’d survive…I can’t Branna…I…I cant.” She sank onto the glass floor, tears sliding from her aching eyes.   
Branna was quiet for a long moment, leaving her host to sob drily and clutch at her aching chest. Theo felt she had finally broken. She could fall no further, take no more pain. If Branna so much as gave her a headache right now she would fall to her knees and do whatever the spirit commanded. She had no will left to fight. There was no way she could do this and remain whole.  
There was no salvation for her.  
…There is another way…  
No pain accompanied the words, only a quiet hesitation. Theo sat bolt upright. “What? What other way?”  
It would allow us to overpower Hans…and you would avoid emotional trauma for what is to come.  
“What is it?” Theo asked, the glass cracking in her desperation as she struggled to stand again. “I’ll do anything, anything else!”  
If you do this Theonia…you could die.  
She actually laughed. “Does it matter? The cycle is already so out of balance, perhaps my death will right it, if only briefly. All I want is to set things right.”  
It is dangerous but if it works…you will be cleansed of this emotional pain that torments you…and the physical pain that has been inflicted.   
Theo was quiet but didn’t silently request Branna to stop either. The spirit continued.   
It will also allow me to attain my full strength, just as if it were the summer solstice…But…you must give up your soul to me, Theonia…if I overtake your emotions completely the way I did when we bonded, you will have the strength to complete this task…physically and emotionally.   
Theo considered the offer being extended to her. There were stories of Head Councilors who had tied their souls to the spirits. Given up their own autonomy for power. Access to such power was unconceivable. There was a story several generations back of an autumn host who had done such a thing and created a plague such as the world had never known. The host had died soon after with no apparent cause. Branna was offering to take the pain, to shoulder it all so Theo would not have to experience it. It would ensure they had the strength to stop Hans should he turn on them. It would shield her from the horrors she had to commit. It would probably also kill her. “I’ll be able to do it?”  
We will be able to do it.  
Theo looked down at her feet, encased in cracked glass that was dirtied with soot. “I’ll feel no remorse?”  
You will feel nothing. I will feel it all. We will remain bonded until I chose to leave you or you are killed. All of your emotions will exist only in my consciousness, as my heat and fire. Our souls will become one.  
Thin tendrils of flame snaked across the glass, melting it back into liquid. “I wont feel anything…” The glass slowly sank under her feet, running under the soles until she was supported completely by the hot liquid.  
That is correct. I will feel for you.  
“All I need to do…”  
“Is surrender.”  
***  
Elsa was back on the roof, staring off towards the North Mountain far in the distance. The rain had finally cleared, allowing her a shadowy glimpse of the rearing peak among fading clouds and cool autumn fog.   
She was hiding again. It was like the door, her solitude. Whenever it became too much, she had to put on the gloves, close the door and be alone.  
Her arms were wrapped tightly around her middle, trying to keep her from crumpling onto the stones. The snow swirled around her, even as she wished she could send it away. Elsa clasped her hands tightly in front of her, ice crystals pricking her palms. Had she really changed so little, even after all this time? After all she’d been though, everything she’d done? She was still just the scared little girl hiding from the world. Hiding from her guilt at hurting someone she cared about.  
Theo’s words continued to haunt her, echoing inside her head even now, in her solitude...   
“Why are we meeting in secret? I don’t think your over-protective friend would like this very much.”   
The voice was familiar. Too familiar. Elsa whirled, looking for Hans. He was nowhere to be seen.   
A light chuckle came from behind the turret to her left, a laugh that undoubtedly belonged to Scara. “I just wanted to show you something.”  
As quietly as possible, Elsa inched around the structure until she could see the two of them. They were standing at the roof edge, the spring host holding a small maple sapling in her hand that was putting out leaves and dropping them at regular intervals. Hans was standing close to her but with his cuffed hands carefully out of the way.   
“As long as we’re together, this tree will be fine.” Scara said. “It will have to fight and struggle between two extremes but it will live. Actually live instead of just being alive.”  
Hans said nothing but Elsa saw his face contort into a look she knew all too well. A sneer of malice. But just as she opened her mouth to come between them, Scara spoke again, her voice low and vulnerable. “Like us. We need to be together to live. Without the struggle, without the balance, we’re just alive.”  
Han’s smile slipped back into charming territory. “Theo wont like this…” He warned her. “She seems determined that I stay away from you.”  
“Theo worries too much.” Scara said to the Southern Isles prince, stepping the tiniest bit closer to Hans. “I know you.”  
For a moment, Hans’ face softened. Elsa drew a surprised intact of breath. He actually looked…human. Vulnerable and hopeful. Scara smiled at him. She reached up with her free hand, her fingers stretching towards him. Hans leaned forward just slightly, seeking the contact…But just before her fingertips could brush his cheek, he violently pulled away. “You know nothing of me.”  
The autumn host raised his cuffed hands and touched the sapling Scara held. It choked, twisted and died completely. Without a word, Hans turned and walked away from her. He crossed the roof and descended the stairs back to the temple.   
Scara watched him for a moment, the dead tree in her hands slowly leafing out again. Then she too descended the roof, leaving Elsa alone.   
Elsa leaned against the turret, pouring over what she had just seen and unable to make any sense of it. Hans and Scara. She had never encountered two people more different. Why then, did they get along so well, even after Hans had tried to murder her? Why was Scara, seeking him out? Why was Hans pretending to be human only to her?  
Scara’s words came back to her: actually live instead of just being alive…  
“Elsa…”  
The snow queen turned at the sound of her name and paused in shock. “Theo…?”  
The fire-girl stood there silently, her hands clasped tightly behind her back. She had trimmed her hair back to its short stubby length from the previous summer and she was dressed in the black tunic and pants Elsa had seen Garret wear everywhere.   
But that was not what had startled Elsa. Theo was staring at her unblinkingly, her gaze sharp and piercing. Her eyes seemed different, Elsa couldn’t quite explain it but she seemed to be more distant, almost as if she weren’t really here at this moment. It was unsettling.  
“I’m sorry about earlier.” Theo began in an empty voice. “I lost my temper, it wont happen again.”  
“It’s alright.” Elsa assured her, standing up and taking a step forwards. “I… I’m sorry too…and I know you think I don’t care but…I do. I know how you feel…” she said, stumbling over her words. “To lose someone so close…a member of the family…… I went through hell and back after my parents died. It was awful.” She looked over her shoulder towards the distant mountain. “Without Anna, I don’t think I would have made it.”  
Out of the corner of her eye, Elsa thought she saw Theo convulse, as if the mention of Anna had physically harmed her in some way. But before she could inquire about it, Theo spoke again.   
“Garret is gone.” She said in a voice stripped of all emotion. “We will not have a Guardian for several years now. But we must continue.”   
Elsa nodded. “Yes. He would have wanted us to…”  
“Finding out where Isen is now is out greatest concern.” Theo continued as if Elsa hadn’t spoken. “We need all of us together if we are going to survive this tumultuous time.”   
This wasn’t the Theonia Elsa knew. She sounded cold and calculating, almost like one of Elsa’s generals in a board room meeting. But before Elsa could enquire about the change, Theo spoke again. “I want you to visit your ice palace again before you go back to Arendelle.”  
Elsa furrowed her forehead in confusion. “Why?”  
“We felt Isen there before. I think returning there is a good place to start looking again. We need to wake her up if we are ever going to get Død to cooperate.” Theo stepped forward to stand next to Elsa on the rooftop. She gazed towards the North Mountain without appearing to really see it. “The solstice is soon, Isen’s sleep will be shallowest then. She may wake if we can call loud enough.”  
Elsa could not take her eyes from Theo. “Are you coming with me again?”  
“No.” Theo replied seemingly without any form of reaction on her part. “I will stay here with Autumn. He and I have much to do.”  
Now Elsa knew she was not imagining this. Theo was different somehow, there was something off about her. She still stared out towards the mountain as if she were looking at another landscape entirely.  
They had done this before. Elsa and Theonia had stood on this same rooftop discussing a trip to her ice palace many months ago. They had come so far since then, before the meeting this morning, Elsa would have even called them friends. Now, she felt she stood on this rooftop with a stranger.   
“Theo,” Elsa reached out, placing a hand on the girl’s forearm. It was burning hot, hotter than any normal person’s skin should be. Nevertheless, Elsa held on. “Are you sure you’re alright?”  
Red eyes shot to hers and Elsa noticed a fleeting look of panic cross through them before it was swallowed up by the stoniness that had come to define her features. Elsa knew that reaction well.   
The same look she knew she’d had whenever someone reached out to her.   
Theo’s arm tensed but she did not pull away. “Elsa, please.” She said, not quite begging but close to it. “Trust me. Going to the palace on the solstice will awaken Isen.”  
Elsa opened her mouth and tightened her grip, about to protest but noticed that the arm under her hand was trembling.   
“Just go.” Theo said dully, looking away from Elsa, seemingly unaware of how her body was betraying her fear. “Take Scara with you, I know she’s been dying to see it. And Livet might be able to help coax her out.”  
Elsa was silent for a moment, trying to make sense of what was happening here, why nothing was making sense. Theo was afraid, scared and yet…she wasn’t acting like it. She was buried so deep it was like she had no emotions at all.   
This wasn’t the girl Elsa knew.  
“Theo please…” She begged, squeezing the arm in her grip gently, trying to hide her own fear. “you don’t have to be afraid…you don’t need to be here alone……I……I’m here. I can stay. I can help you.”  
The shaking under her hand stilled and Elsa looked up. Burning red eyes bored into her own, swimming in tears of liquid fire. In a flash, Elsa could see the girl she knew once again.   
Somehow, with those few gestures and words, Elsa had reached her. The real her.  
Without warning, the summer host surged forward and captured Elsa’s lips with her own. Elsa didn’t even step back in surprise. Her eyes slammed shut and her mouth pressed back, blowing a gust of icy air into the fire pouring into her mouth.   
A thick cloud of steam engulfed them that neither was coherent enough to see. Snowflakes and flames danced away from them in a strong breeze, colliding and eliminating each other.   
Elsa was lost in the sensation: not just the physicality of it, although there was plenty of that to lose herself in. Rather, the emotionality of it captivated her and held her there, desperately kissing back.   
It was as if every emotion Theo was holding back from her surface was churning and pouring out of that kiss. Elsa could feel it all: the rage, the sorrow, the crippling loneliness and guilt, the sense that this was goodbye…she fought to try to force some of her own emotions outward and into that mass of pain: comfort, security, a promise that she wouldn’t abandon her…  
As always, Theo was the one who pulled away. Her eyes were closed, her breath calm and steady across Elsa’s face. A burning hot thumb stroked her cheek and tears glistened in the corners of the closed eyes before her. For a moment, it looked like she wanted to say something.   
But as her eyes snapped back open, Theo quickly abandoned all contact and stepped away from Elsa. She turned and headed back towards the stairs off the roof. Still breathless, Elsa could do little but watch her walk away, her heart and her mind swirling at impossible speeds, trying to once again make sense of what was happening between them. Why they could never seem to be at the same place together at the same time. At the door, Theo paused, glancing back to meet Elsa’s gaze. A smile that didn’t reach her eyes graced her kiss-swollen lips.   
“Don’t worry Elsa, when you return, everything will be alright. Everything will be as it should be.”  
***  
Hooves pounded down the mountainside.   
Kristoff leaned forwards, desperately clinging to Sven’s mane as they raced back towards Arendelle. Overhead it was dusk, nearing nightfall but you’d never guess it from the sky. All day, the orange-grey clouds had been gathering, coalescing and churning, bolts of blue lightning crackling among them and discontented whispers of wind spilling from their depths. Not too far away, a storm was breaking. Kristoff was positive it was breaking over Arendelle.  
Sven rounded a corner at top speed and Kristoff would have been thrown off if not for his years of experience. As he righted himself, the words Pabbie had spoken churned in his mind, sickening him and urging him onwards.   
The things he had heard…it changed everything. Everything hinged on one thing.  
“Kristoff…” Pabbie had told him, as he’d leapt on Sven to begin his journey back. “you must protect Anna…if anything happens to her…all could be lost. Her bond with Elsa is too strong, Elsa will lose control entirely…nothing will stop Winter’s fury…”  
Sven raced along a canyon, loose rocks tumbling hundreds of feet into a valley from the pounding of his hooves. Kristoff barely noticed them. His mind was completely focused on one thing, the most important thing.  
He had to get back to Anna.


	16. Reflections

"Isen has fallen.  
The cycle cannot be saved if she is gone. Without her, everything falls to dust and the world is consumed with ash. The valleys will crumble as the cold leaves them, the sea will rise, the fires rage.  
The world will burn without Winter.  
But perhaps it can survive without Summer.  
The fire has consumed me and my sorrow has fed the flames. My pain has sharpened the scouring sand and my lonely Howl stirred the summer gale. I will fall to dust and be consumed by the ash.  
And so I go to my Death, knowing my sacrifice was not in vain. That perhaps my actions, terrible as they will be, will give the world another chance, a little longer to Live.  
May the Mother have mercy on me."

The troll put down the scroll, his fingers trembling so badly they clacked against each other. The sound echoed dimly in the dark library where Goren had found the new scripture of Branna: The Final Testament of Head Councilor Theonia, 115th host of Branna the goddess of summer. The words on the scroll before him were written in blood, in penmanship he himself had taught to the writer.  
“Theonia…what have you done?”  
***  
The ship bobbing in the harbor wasn’t large. It was a standard schooner, three masts and two decks painted with the colors and seals of the Southern Isles. But it boasted far more cannons then Anna had ever seen in her life.  
“How does that not sink them?”  
Captain Wulfric smiled uneasily. “It’s all in the weight distribution your Highness. Although how they managed to make all that fit on the deck space is beyond me…”  
The two of them crossed the Arendelle Navy docks, where a launch was preparing to take Arendelle sailors to their ships and make contact with the foreign vessel. Everyone stopped what they were doing as the Princess passed and bowed low to her. But Anna only had eyes for the ship cutting through Arendelle’s harbor. It moved slowly, like a great whale swimming through an icy slurry, nothing like the quick, nimble movements Anna was used to from watching her own navy practice. The Arendelle Navy was world famous for its precision and durability but the Southern Isles was envied for its sheer size and fire-power.   
“How far of a range do you think those cannons have?” Anna asked Wulfric.  
“Further than I’d be comfortable admitting, your Highness.” Was his uneasy reply. He’d kept a tight grip on his sword pommel the whole way down here. Anna had insisted she go down to the docks with him and somehow, the headstrong Princess had won that argument. Now the poor man was constantly on edge, looking around as if the empty barrel at the end of the shore was going to leap out and attack the Princess (it wasn’t, Anna knew for a fact that Dagrun was in it, keeping an eye out).   
“Princess Anna!” Both Anna and the Captain turned at the voice and caught sight of a tall, lithe man walking quickly towards them from the end of the dock.   
“Admiral Westergard.” Anna greeted him as the head of Arendelle’s navy snapped a crisp salute to her. Admiral Westergard had been in charge of Arendelle’s defense since before even Elsa had been born. He had been in the Navy since before Anna and Elsa’s father had been born. He was a grizzled old man with a face pocked with scars and weathered from salty winds. But his dedication and heart had never wavered. After the Thaw, he had come to Elsa on his knees, begging her to dismiss him for his failure to guard the royal family during Hans’ uprising. He had even torn off his badges and thrown them at her feet in shame. But Elsa had refused to accept that he had done anything wrong. She knew he had no reason to be removed. The Admiral had remained in his position with all his honors intact.  
Anna had always admired the man, there had even been a brief period of her life when she had outright idolized him (of course, this was the same period of her life when she’d tried to convince her parents to let her join the navy).   
The Admiral nodded to her and clasped his hands behind his back. “We’re prepared to attack if you give the order, your Highness.”  
Anna let out an undignified sputter. “Attack? Who said anything about attacking?”  
“This is an unsolicited arrival, Princess.” The Admiral replied. “Even if we weren’t at odds with the Isles right now, this would still be considered a military threat.”   
“We are not starting a war.” Anna reminded him.   
“We may have to your Highness.” Captain Wulfric pointed out to her. “If they attack us, we have no choice but to either defend or surrender.”  
“But they haven’t attacked us.” Anna said flatly. “There’s no reason to assume they are hostile.”  
“The Queen’s Absence Orders are in effect, Princess Anna.” Admiral Westergard informed Anna. “We have to engage them.”  
Anna turned to the navy officer, confused. “What are those?”  
“Queen Elsa left us a set of instructions of what to do in the event of her not being present in Arendelle.” The Admiral explained. “They say we are to protect the people at all costs and dispel any action that may constitute a threat to Arendelle. This ship is most definitely one of them.”  
Anna stiffened in surprise. “And I suppose she did this just before she left a few days ago?” Even now, she could not keep a hint of spite from her voice. Would her sister ever trust her?  
But the Admiral was shaking his head. “No, Princess Anna. She did this immediately after the Thaw. She was concerned that should she need to leave once more, people may take advantage of her absence to strike at Arendelle.”   
Anna’s gaze dropped, ashamed of her momentary anger at her sister. Of course. Elsa had always had Arendelle’s best interests at heart, even before all this began. She would walk through fire to keep her kingdom safe.   
Anna felt the Admiral place a gentle, fatherly hand on her shoulder. “She wanted to make sure you were safe.” He told her softly. Anna pursed her lips, now fighting back tears. “Admiral, look!”  
Both Anna and Admiral Westergard turned at Captain Wulfric’s curt shout. He was pointing out across the fjord at the bobbing war-ship.  
The Southern Isles ship was raising a flag. A flag painted with a crude, blood-red Arendelle crest.  
The Admiral squinted at the symbol. “What in the name of the gods…?”  
A shiver ran through Anna and she tensed. Something wasn’t right. The docks around them had fallen silent, as if a blanket had been draped over the entire scene.   
Her senses sharpening, Anna turned.  
Torches were being lit. All around the docks and down the few streets she could see they flickered to life, spreading like a silent plague. Several of the sailors on the docks and a few of the dockhands were donning scarves around their mouths. Scarves marked with a blood-red symbol of the Arendelle crest.  
The one closest to Anna, a barrel-chested sailor with dull gray hair glared at her, his dark eyes flashing. Before she could react, he lunged forward, his arms outstretched.   
The Admiral drew his sword suddenly, stepping protectively in front of Anna.   
“Captain!” He barked as he butted the man in the face with the hilt of his sword. “Get her to safety at once!”  
Without a word, Wulfric grabbed Anna and raced her back down the docks.   
“What are you doing?” Anna shouted, struggling against his iron grip. Behind them, the Admiral was swinging his sword at the gathering dissenters, keeping them back long enough that Wulfric and Anna could get away. “Let go of me this instant!” Anna cried.   
Wulfric just held her tighter and quickened his pace. “I’m sorry Princess Anna, I cant do that.” He told her. Without warning, he scooped her up in his arms and leapt from the ramp and onto the sand. He sprinted down the beach, not even pausing to let her down.  
“What?” Anna gasped, still completely lost.  
“This is not a threat my lady,” The Captain told her grimly. “it is a coup.” He ducked under a shore-side cellar overhang, into a secret passageway that led all the way back up to Anna’s Informers study. As the door slammed shut behind them, he kicked a lever off to the side and an enormous wooden beam fell across the door, sealing the passage from the inside. In the dimness of the sealed tunnel, he gently placed Anna back on her feet and nudged her forward. “We must get you back to the palace immediately.”  
***  
Far above the scene, on the outcropping of a cliff on the edge of the fjord, an unlikely pair watched Arendelle: one of them eagerly, the other stoically.  
“Seems as if you’ve had this entire thing planned for awhile…” Theo commented. Hans glanced at his companion, trying to gauge her reaction. She appeared to have none.  
“Let’s just say I had a lot of time alone in the Southern Isles to plan my revenge.” Hans leaned forward to better examine the ship, shifting his still-cuffed hands uncomfortably. “But this is my brother Christian’s doing.” He smirked “Does it bother you that I appear to have ulterior motives?”  
Theo glanced side-long at him. “I only care about achieving my motives.” The summer host replied. “And based on what I am observing now, it seems that your goal is similar to mine.”  
Hans chuckled fondly. “You know,” he said, leaning back from the cliff edge, “I wasn’t sure you were serious when you came to me with this proposal.”  
Still dressed as her dead Guardian, the summer host merely flicked her eyes to her companion. “I am serious.” She answered him, her voice a perfect complement to her words. “Otherwise you’d be under lock and key. Embrace your freedom, for however long it lasts.”  
Reproached, Hans fell silent, watching as a dinghy was lowered from the ship and several small figures climbed into it to begin the row towards shore. The dissenters at the docks were tying up the men who had been holding them back, waving torches and starting to chant.   
Theo was looking at the scene but she was not seeing it. She was too caught up in the new world that had opened up inside her mind.  
Her and Branna had shared thoughts and memories for years, in their meditations they often walked together side by side. But this…this experience easily trumped them all.  
She raised a hand and gazed at it, seeing the scorching heat leaking from her fingers as if it were the summer solstice again. Even in this cold, her radiant body heat made it feel like summer for a small area around her.   
Her power was unprecedented. Where there had once been nothing but pain and anguish, now there was the fury of fire, the scrape of sand. She felt the motion of every particle, the flicker of each flame. Branna’s mind was inseparable from hers, the ancient stories were her memories now…if she looked deep enough she could see the true form of the Mother…of Isen…their true home in the Mother’s Realm…  
The epiphany was interrupted by her companion. “Having second thoughts?” He taunted.   
Theo turned to Hans, not rising to his words. Her temper had been extinguished along with all her other emotions. “I don’t have that luxury…” She replied. “this is the only way to restore balance. For you and for me.”  
Still smirking, Hans held out his hands and the summer goddess melted the cuffs with a flick of her wrist. The prince rubbed his wrists, flexing them experimentally.   
“Don’t forget the condition.” He reminded her.  
She fixed him with a hard gaze. “How could I? That was to be my only request.”  
The prince smiled, his eyes darkening with hatred. “Then let us begin…”  
Theo swirled the cool air around them, warming it and forming a large cushion for the two of them with little more than a twist of her wrist. They stepped off the cliff and descended slowly to the water. Just as their feet brushed the surface, another breeze caught them and propelled them towards the shore, swinging wide of the ship and the crowded docks where the dissenters were now organizing themselves. Unnoticed, the two hosts touched down gently on the sand along Arendelle’s shore as the winds dispersed from them.  
Hans took a deep breath, the air around him rippling with undercurrents of the Breath. “Oh how I have dreamed of this day…” He said fondly. “I first met Anna just over there.” The prince remarked, gesturing at a dock further down the shore.  
Theo didn’t even follow his gaze. “Go on then.” She told him. “Remember to send the signal when you are successful.”  
Hans only sneered. “Don’t forget your signal.” He turned on his heel, his cloak flowing ominously around him and darted across the sand towards the city proper.   
Theo watched him disappear, her confidence in this plan wavering slightly. She’d known he was diabolical and obsessed with his revenge on Elsa’s kingdom. She had no idea it went this far. It was almost like he had planned for her to bring him back here just now.  
But so long as he did what she had asked, there was no reason to worry. His revenge would correct the imbalance. Then, as he was distracted by his euphoria at completing his task she would rise behind him and take back the life he had stolen…  
Theo bit her lip, curbing that vision in her mind. Her thoughts were more murderous now. Branna truly was a soldier no matter how much she tried to pretend to be just a scribe.  
She almost missed the absence of immediate ridicule inside her head, instead there was only an irritated stirring of the particles under her feet. Theo turned and headed for the harbor, the sand around her feet drying under each step and cracking, a hot wind following her.  
Arendelle’s bay inside the fjord curled almost entirely around the capitol town, stopped only by a small finger of land that stretched out onto the water. Upon this tiny parcel rested the castle and all the streets and homes that made up the city. The beach was little more than a thin line of sand, broken often by slabs of rock. It was all that separated the town from the water. A few houses were even built right on the water, held aloft by thick wooden stilts to keep them high and dry.   
Theo was currently standing on an empty stretch of beach that was relatively uninterrupted except for a few docks and bobbing boats. Everything seemed washed out in the late-afternoon light. Or was that just how she saw the world now: devoid of color, in shades of watered-down pastels?   
The mountains loomed overhead, casting deep shadows over the town except for the beach. The palace in the center of the city was large but not obtrusive. Rather than loom over the town, it more seemed like a protective shield, offering hope and solace.   
Theo gazed up at the palace walls, remembering the last time she had ascended them, carried by her tornado. She could see why Elsa was so attached to this kingdom. This would have been a nice place to live, had her life been different. Burning it down was going to be difficult.   
Movement down the beach caught her attention and Theo stiffened reflexively, a flame curling in her hand.   
The summer host peered ahead, squinting at the tiny white figure toddling along the beach collecting seashells.   
Her eyebrow raised in confusion. Was that…a snowman?  
She wouldn’t have believed it if she wasn’t seeing it but it was indeed a fully animated snowman. He was short and round, with mis-matched sized sections: a large bottom, tiny feet and an oddly shaped head. It almost looked like he had been assembled by a child.   
Of course, Theo remembered. Elsa could somehow make living snow-creatures, like the one at her ice palace. But how was this one surviving outside the mountains?   
Letting the flame burn out, she walked slowly towards the thing, watching it waddle at the shoreline, picking up anything that intrigued it with stick hands. As she drew closer, she saw the little cloud above its head that was constantly snowing. An effective transportable life-force for a cold being.  
Summer shivered. Was there no limit to Elsa’s power?  
The snowman looked up as she drew close. It beamed at her, showing her large front teeth. “Hello!” It called cheerily.   
Theo didn’t respond, unsure of how to deal with such a creature, especially such a cheerful and inherently trustful one. Didn’t it feel the waves of heat around her that would kill it if it got too close?  
“My name is Olaf!” The snowman told her, dropping his shells and spreading his stick arms wide. “I like warm hugs!”  
Theo made no move to hug him. “Well I can assure you, mine are the warmest.” She informed him.  
The snowman, Olaf, giggled and ran forward with his arms outstretched but she stepped aside to keep him away from her. He fell face-first into the sand but resolutely wiggled his way back to his feet and turned to face her again.   
“Are you a friend of Elsa’s?” The creature asked, putting his arms down but not looking any less cheerful about her unwillingness to hug him. Now she recognized him: he was the thing that had been with Anna when they’d been in the forest. She hadn’t gotten a good look back there, she’d assumed he was only a dog or something.  
“Are you one of her creations?” Theo returned. She did not feel she could answer his question even to herself. After today, what would it matter what she was to Elsa?  
“I’m the first snowman Elsa and Anna made!” Olaf told her proudly, gathering up his seashells again. “Anna’s upset so I’m bringing her some shells to cheer her up!”  
That statement stopped her heart. “They made you…together?” A fearful whip of wind was circling at her feet, stirring at the sand.   
Olaf laughed at the warm gust, protected by his personal flurry. “Elsa brought me to life.” He told Theo. “But Anna was her inspiration!”  
Theo was shaking now, heat rolling off of her in waves. “But…how?” She knew how. She just didn’t want it to be true.   
“Because Elsa and Anna love each other!” The snowman told her proudly. “And love is a powerful thing!”  
Theo crouched next to him, staring intensely at the snowman. “Indeed it is.” She agreed. “But I am willing to sacrifice my love for the good of this world.” Her hand touched the animated snowman’s chest, right where his heart should be. “Is Elsa?”   
Before the snowman could draw his final breath, he fell into a puddle, his warm personality lost in the obscurity of the thawed particles. The water ran over the fallen shells, through the grains of sand and vanished into the oblivion of blank space hiding in the matrix. His flurry vaporized instantly, leaving behind only a tiny curl of steam.  
A sharp pain drove through Theo’s skull like a knife. She stumbled back, clutching her forehead as sensations assaulted her with all the force of a summer gale. It was happening again.  
"Anna…is my world…"  
A bright smile…the cool sensation of fingers at her cheek…a laugh warming her heart as she sat at a campfire…  
“How could I have done that? They love each other so much Elsa’s powers created life. I’m going to have to shatter that love…rip it apart like a demon…how can I make her suffer like that...!? What kind of monster am I?”  
Her heart thudded and burned painfully. Tears welled in her eyes and every muscle in her body shook uncontrollably. The torrent of emotions (for that was what they were) grew stronger and faster until she was abruptly yanked from them. The sudden loss of sensation felt like an iron gate had been slammed shut between her and her emotions, locking her away from the world.   
But it made it stop. She was free again.  
Theo took several deep breaths, the fire and sand slowly replacing the void left by her emotions. She ran her hands slowly over her face and hair as if she needed to be reminded where everything was. For just a moment, she and Branna had separated again…she had felt again…just like when she had broken from the bond and kissed Elsa on the temple rooftop.  
Tiny agitated flames sprung to life on her hands and a tight wind whipped worriedly around her. Branna had said the bonding would be permanent, unbreakable. But not even her vast knowledge knew why this kept happening to them.  
Theo stood up and looked towards the great walls of the castle, her face betraying nothing of the turmoil inside that the elements around her exhibited. The sand under her feet was dry and hot once more, without even a trace of the snowman except for a forlorn carrot nose.   
She had taken her first life today. It would be far from the last.   
***  
Anna argued vehemently the whole way back to the palace but the Captain was resolute.   
“You cant go back out there Princess.” Wulfric told her as he pushed her out from behind the fireplace and dragged a bookcase over the gap.   
“I wont let you shut the gates again!” Anna snapped. “Elsa promised me that…”  
“The Queen is not here, Princess Anna and we need to keep you safe. That means shutting the gates.” He shoved the bookcase with his shoulder and somehow managed to move the heavy thing just far enough to cover the gap.  
The Princess folded her arms tightly. “And who’s going to keep the people safe while I’m locked up in here?” She asked him, raising an eyebrow in challenge.   
He sighed heavily. “Princess Anna,” He pleaded, now pulling several chairs in front of the fake fireplace as a rudimentary barricade, “we are not going to abandon the people. But you are our main concern.”  
Anna scoffed. “You hardly need to worry about me. You said yourself I’m as talented with my sword as the best of your soldiers!”  
He had indeed said that. After the Princess had resoundingly defeated him during a sparring match, leaving him sprawled on his rump in front of most of his men.   
“This is a delicate situation, Princess.” He tried to explain, standing before the Princess as she fearlessly stared him down. The Captain took a deep breath, trying to figure out what to say to convince her this was for the best. “From the looks of things, these people rebelling are those afraid of the queen and her powers. They want her blood and they will do anything to get it. Including allying with the Southern Isles.”  
Clearly that had been the wrong thing to say. The Princess looked ready to go on a hunt of her own. Princess Anna’s hands trembled. “This is Prince Christian’s doing…where is he?” She tried to storm out of the room but he put himself between her and the door with two long strides.   
“We searched the Prince’s quarters Princess, but he’s nowhere to be found. He must have slipped out when the ship arrived.”  
The Princess’ face contorted in anger and she began pacing agitatedly, looking just like her sister.   
“Prince Christian must have been gathering followers here in Arendelle,” Wulfric continued, “stirring up dissent over her Majesty’s powers…”  
“All under the guise of a ‘trade agreement’…” Anna interrupted, speaking more to herself than to him. She paused in her movements, looking at him. “When I find him…I’m going to…!”   
The Captain was quick to cut her off this time. “This has been months in the making, we have no idea who is involved and who is against you. Out on the street, you’re an open target. In here, you are at least shielded.”  
Anna drew herself up, proudly. “My people need to see that I’m not afraid to…”  
“Your people need a ruler alive at the end of this!” Wulfric shouted at her. To his amazement, this was the tactic that worked.   
Anna’s face fell. “You’ve given up on Elsa, haven’t you…” She asked quietly, sounding for all the world like he had been the one to betray her.   
He had (he suspected most of the people had by this point), but he wasn’t about to tell her that. “I am protecting the future, Princess Anna.” He told her. “If your sister returns home and finds you dead because I let you out on the streets right now, how do you think she would react?”  
Anna didn’t answer, she folded her arms tightly around her middle and refused to look at him. Wulfric knew he was making progress.   
“The Queen has always demanded your safety above everyone else’s.” He told Anna gently. “So you must remain here. It would kill her if anything were to happen to you.”  
Princess Anna nodded slowly, making up her mind. “Fine. I will stay. But you will go.”  
He shook his head. “I am not leaving your side, Princess.” He said, taking up a firm stance in the center of the room.  
Anna ignored him and pulled her sword belt from under the desk, buckling it around her hips.   
Captain Wulfric still had not moved. He was reluctant to leave the Princess on her own despite her aptitude with a blade.  
Anna glared at him when she saw he still had not moved. “Return to your troops captain,” The Princess commanded. “they need your leadership.”  
“I am not leaving your side, Princess.” He repeated.   
“You are needed out on the battlefield more than you are needed here.” Anna told him. She stood opposite him, her sword at her waist, her hands crossed resolutely at her waist. “I can handle myself.”  
As he looked at his Princess, the Captain couldn’t help but waver in his decision to remain. Here was the little girl he had watched grow up, the likable troublemaker who had always caused him to either smile or groan. But now…all he saw was his superior, another soldier before him planning a strategy. And he was only standing in her way. It was as if she had transcended the barrier that had existed between them, changing from someone he had been charged with protecting to become his equal. She didn’t need to be baby-sat anymore. The little girl he had known had grown up to be a warrior.   
“That is an order captain.” Anna told him firmly. “Defend your kingdom!”   
Chastened by his realization, the Captain bowed his head, placing his fist over his heart. “As you wish, your Highness.” With a worried glance, he turned and left the princess alone. He hurried down the corridor to the stairs, shouting for his guard to assemble. As he ran down the stairs to the main hall, he drew his sword again.  
"Don’t worry Queen Elsa, Princess Anna…I’ll keep our kingdom safe."  
***  
As the captain left, Anna allowed her composure to break. Her hands covered her face.  
“Oh gods…oh no…what…what do I do now?”  
She sank into the chair, not trusting her legs to hold her up. “Oh gods…Elsa…Elsa why aren’t you here? Why aren’t you here to help me?” Her entire body shook as she fully comprehended just how utterly alone she was. Kristoff was gone, Elsa was gone and now even her Palace Guard Captain. Anna was used to loneliness, her childhood had made sure of that. But Elsa had always been here. Distant, but here. Now she was gone, off gods-knew-where refusing to let her help or even know what she was doing.   
Anna was finally, completely alone.   
Well, maybe not entirely….  
Her hands momentarily drifted across her belly, thinking of the other life she had to protect as well. The life that depended on her. Just as her people depended on her to lead them through this crisis. Until Elsa returned, Anna was all that stood to protect them.   
Taking a deep breath, she willed herself back to her feet. Princess Anna stood tall and proud, sword at her hip. She was not going to let Arendelle down.   
As she turned to leave the room, something on the desk caught her eye. She paused.   
It was a Toad Lily from her mother’s garden, one that she had plucked yesterday just before the storm had hit. It was still wide open, its soft white petals curled gently back on themselves and spotted with specs of the deepest royal purple. Anna remembered when her mother had first planted these flowers in her garden. It had been a year after Elsa had locked herself away, just when she had started to feel alone in their enormous castle.   
Tucking the flower into her hair, Anna left her office and quickly climbed the stairs to her father’s study. It had the best windows for overlooking the city. She had to know what was happening, what she could do. If only she could make contact with some of the Informers…maybe they could help the people somehow.  
The sword on her hip jangled uncomfortably and her skirts caught on the scabbard several times, prompting her to stop and unravel the garment. She wished she had her practice breeches on but for now she’d have to make do in a dress. There was no time to run all the way back to her room to change.   
Several agonizing minutes later, she reached the study and yanked the door open. Two people she had not expected to see were inside waiting for her.   
“Dagrun! Ichtaca!” She had never been so happy to see the boys before. She fell to her knees, her arms held open for a hug. The two children embraced her briefly but quickly backed away.  
“Sorry we didn’ come sooner!” Dagrun told her, his face streaked with what looked like soot. “We ‘ad to use this passage since the Captain sealed the one from th’ docks.”  
Anna smiled. Clever boys. Every day she thanked the gods that she had found them…or they had found her, whichever way you wanted to look at it. “What is going on out there?” She asked, eager to be brought up to speed.  
“The rebels are everywhere!” Dagrun said dramatically. “They’re all lightin’ torches an’ shouting stuff!”  
“From what we’ve gathered, it seems that the rebels are spread out across the city but many are gathering at the docks.” Ichtaca told her in that level-headed manner of his that Anna had always appreciated. “They call themselves the Arendelle Freedom Fighters and they look to Prince Christian as their leader.”  
Anna’s gaze darkened. “I knew it…” She spat. “How did we not get word of this before?”  
“The Prince ‘as been very careful covering his communications with these people. They’ve all never met ‘fore today.” Dagrun piped up. Ichatac nodded in agreement.   
“We heard whispers…” The older boy admitted. “but nothing we thought would constitute a real threat…jus’ the usual complaints an’ speculations.”  
“But there is good news, mum.” Dagrun broke in, practically bouncing to get his news out.   
Immediately he had Anna’s full attention. “What?” Had Elsa returned?  
Dagrun and Ictaca both grinned like they’d found gold. “Reba’s made contact mum.” Ichtaca said happily.  
“Told us to tell ya that she’s gettin’ the Queen back.” Dagrun chimed in.  
It took Anna several seconds to process what they had said. “What? But…how?”  
Ichtaca answered her. “Reba sent us a message.” He told Anna. “She has a way with birds, ‘specially ravens, mum. She sent instructions.”  
Anna blinked, still lost. “From where?”  
Dagrun shrugged. “No idea, but we got ‘um.”  
“What did she say?”  
“She says she’d been off gatherin’ intelligence these past few days and organizin’ the kids for the possibility of this attack.” Dagrun gave her a satisfied grin. “None of us even knew this was comin’ but Reba was prepared for it! We’ve got Informers positioned all around the city, ready to get the common folk out of cannon range should anythin’ happen. Nyle’s with ‘um, keepin’ an eye on the ship. And I sent one o’ them birds off to find Reba. Hopefully she’ll be back soon.”  
Anna sat back on her heels, mulling everything over. “Let’s hope so…” Her mind was whirling but thankfully, she was no longer in a panic.   
How had Reba known the attack was coming? How did she know where Elsa was? As minor as the questions were in the moment, Anna couldn’t help but ponder them.  
“Right…” She said, collecting her thoughts as the boys watched her eagerly. “We need regular reports. And we have to find the Prince. Dagrun, can you take care of that?”  
The boy grinned like she’d just given him a mountain of chocolate. “It would be my pleasure, Princess Anna!”   
He sloppily saluted her and rushed for the exit, disappearing down the tunnel without so much as a glance backward. His older brother followed, nodding farewell at the princess. As she watched them leave, Anna was suddenly seized with an intense fear. The fear of being alone, of being lonely and afraid up here as Arendelle suffered. She couldn’t do this…not alone anyway.   
“Ichtaca…” The boy paused, glancing up at Anna in concern at the waver in her voice. Anna swallowed. “please…would you stay with me? You can relay reports and instructions from me if necessary…”  
The spy smiled warmly and nodded. “Of course mum. I wont leave your side!”  
Anna smiled gratefully, once again blown away by the child’s commitment and maturity. The young Informer came and stood next to his Princess as she sat herself at the desk once more to wait out another storm.  
Trying to calm herself, Anna removed the flower from her hair and placed it on the desk beside her. Her mother’s flower seemed to catch the afternoon light, despite its lack of vivid colors and glow with an eerie light of its own. Anna drummed her fingers nervously and wished desperately that there was more she could do now. She wrapped one hand absently around her middle, as if to soothe the tiny baby within. Ichatac offered her a calm smile but even his presence could not make her feel absolutely reassured.  
Anna turned back to the window, watching as orange clouds began to gather.   
"Elsa…Kristoff…please hurry…"  
***  
Breathing as quietly as he could, Prince Christian pressed himself against the shadows cast by a tapestry as the Captain of the Palace Guard hurried by, yelling for his guards to come. His improvised hiding spot worked and after the shouts faded, he pulled himself from the shadows to continue on his way.   
Outside, he saw the tell-tale leaves twisting on the wind. He shuddered for no particular reason. He knew this feeling.   
So Hans was here. And he was painfully early at that.   
His baby brother always had been too impatient.   
Christian growled softly in annoyance. This was not good. Everything could fall apart now. He hadn’t had enough time to gain Queen Elsa’s trust or decipher the cryptic words Lord Wilfred had told him. How were they to stop the monster now? And with the Queen gone again…the pieces were missing.   
Christian shook his head. How did all their planning fall apart so quickly?  
He ducked into a servant’s stairwell as more guards thundered past, heading the way he had just come. After a moment’s thought, he descended the stairs, keeping as quiet as he could on the unyielding stone.   
Hans had returned from Arendelle a different man all those months ago. It hadn’t taken Christian too long to figure out that what had happened in the kingdom had made his little brother more unstable than normal. It didn’t help that their father and brothers had not been lenient at all with their punishments. They had always been afraid of Hans. Afraid of what he could do.   
After Hans returned, a distinct chill had come to the Isles and several fields of crops and forest had inexplicably shriveled and died. Hans had been practically mad for days, enough so that he had convinced Christian (against his better judgment) to listen to an insane revenge plan.   
Christian had set out for Arendelle the next day on their navy’s fastest ship. Since that time, he’d had only two sources of contact with his youngest brother. The letters were practically burning a hole in his pocket at this very moment. The one from his eldest brother telling them of the death of their father and Hans’ desertion. And then the letter from Hans with the final instructions for their ‘grand plan’. It was so little to rely on over such a long time.   
A cannon went off and he shook his head. That was the signal. And he was still nowhere near the rendezvous point.   
"Oh little brother…when will you listen to me?"  
He’d tried to talk his baby brother out of it way back when. But he’d failed. And so here they were.  
The staircase came out in a small yard off the palace kitchens. There were high walls all around him and nowhere else to go. Great. He gripped the hilt of his sword tightly and considered his options. He couldn’t just wait it all out here. Someone would find him. He had to get out, Hans had to know about the passage. The Prophecy.  
Christian glanced to his left and nearly cried with relief. Someone (and he had a pretty good idea who) had left a block of ice up against the wall. It was slowly melting but the mass was just tall enough that he might be able to jump and reach the top of the wall.   
He could make it in time if he hurried.   
Standing on the half-melted lump of ice, the Southern Isles prince was able to pull himself over the wall and vanish without a trace into the streets of Arendelle.   
***  
“Oh wow! It’s even more amazing than Theo said it was!”  
Elsa couldn’t help but smile at the younger girl’s enthusiasm towards her ice palace.   
“Just wait until we get inside.” She told Scara as they touched down at the foot of the ice staircase. Scara nodded impatiently, practically leaping off the ice platform and into about a foot of snow. She giggled and kicked her feet free, throwing the powder up in graceful arcs. Elsa couldn’t help but smile. She’d grown very fond of the Spring host in the short amount of time they’d spent together these past few months. Seeing her happy and cheerful again was comforting.  
The trip to the North Mountain had been fast and quiet this time. Scara was unnaturally silent and try as she might, Elsa could not prod a conversation to start between them. It wasn’t until the Spring host had caught sight of Elsa’s creation rearing out of the snow that she had perked up into her old self.   
Taking the lead, Elsa started up the staircase towards her creation, Scara trailing after her with light footsteps and a slightly warm breeze projecting around her. She touched the icy railing but it did not change under her caress.   
The doors slid open effortlessly as their maker approached and Elsa and the spring host stepped inside, their footsteps echoing resoundingly off the perfect floors and smooth walls.   
“Wow.”  
Elsa had to agree with her sentiment. The interior was as pristine as the last time she’d been here, her repairs holding up quite nicely all things considered. The only difference was that the entire interior was sparkling as the sunlight hit it. Frozen fractals fractured the sunbeams, spewing colors across the ice and making the walls glow with a brilliance Elsa had never seen before.   
Was it egotistical to call her own creation beautiful?  
Then she saw several grains of sand littering the floor and had to swallow hard to keep her heart-rate down. Without Scara’s usual demeanor distracting her on their way here, the flight had been a desperate attempt to not think about the kiss. About the way Theo had pulled her close and so desperately tried to be even closer. About the way their tongues and powers had clashed and filled the air with an energy that defied the simplicity of words to define it. About the sensations that were still rushing through her, even now. About the emotionless look in the summer host’s eyes as she pulled away, almost like she hadn’t really been there at all…  
“There’s so much life here!”   
Elsa jerked her head up at Scara’s exclamation, thrown off by the statement. “What?”  
Scara stood in the center of the hallway, twirling in an impromptu dance, lights of all colors illuminating her form. “Can’t you feel that?” She asked Elsa. “The ice itself is bursting with life!” She beamed at her. “This ice has Isen’s touch.”  
Before Elsa could ask what she meant, a bellow shook the palace, making the frozen fountain tinkle as it vibrated.   
The girls looked up as Elsa’s giant snow-guard appeared from the back of the palace and ran towards them. The Snow Queen readied herself to protect the Spring host, drawing the ice to her hands and preparing to unleash it but she paused when she got a good look at the beast.   
He was running but not charging and there was a huge goofy grin on his face. Marshmallow skidded to an ungraceful stop before the girls and without a hint of warning, scooped Scara up and hugged her close.   
“Elsa…friend! Welcome!” He cried cheerfully.  
For her part, Scara just laughed and embraced him back as if they were old friends. The snowman tossed her up in the air and caught her before setting her back on the ground.   
Elsa, for her part, was speechless.   
“I like him!” Scara declared, giving the snowman a little pat on his leg. Marshmallow let out a little roar of happiness and sat down like a dog so Scara could continue to pet him. “He has a piece of Isen too!” Scara exclaimed, scratching at the base of the snowman’s tiara. “A spark of her life!” She turned eagerly to Elsa. “Did you…make him?”  
It took a little coaxing to get the words out of her mouth. “Ummm…yes…” Elsa managed. “him and…one other.” She wondered how Olaf was doing. And of course, thoughts of Olaf only led to thoughts of…  
“hmmm…”  
Elsa glanced up. Scara was examining the walls, Marshmallow abandoned and looking upset at the lack of attention. “What is it?” Elsa asked her.   
Scara pointed. “The mirrors…”  
Elsa whirled around and was confronted by images of herself in every direction. Her ice had become reflective again.   
She swallowed hard. “What about them?” She asked, her voice shaking.   
Scara crossed to stand next to her, examining the room. “You seem to have put them everywhere…” she said softly. “why?”  
Elsa didn’t answer. How was she supposed to vocalize exactly what she despised about them? The fact that, in reality, she still hated the reflective quality ice acquired whenever her emotions were too strong? That the mirrors still reminded her of what she was, of why she’d had to run away that first time? Even during her meditations when the ice was calming, they reduced her to a writhing mass of pain and confusion whenever they chose to appear. They ensured she would never stop loathing her reflection when she’d thought herself a monster. Never let the shame and pain fade so long as she could see herself in her ice.   
Scara examined the far wall with an intense curiosity. “Maybe it’s Isen!” She suggested excitedly. “Maybe she’s trying to reach out to you!”  
“How so?” Elsa asked, lowering her head to avoid looking at her reflection.  
“There’s a legend about Isen,” Scara began, “that she was born under the ocean but the very act of her birth froze the ocean solid, keeping her trapped under in isolation, reflected in every surface of ice. She had to be woken before she could emerge.” She ran a hand down the icy wall, the ice briefly glowing a soft green where she touched it. “Maybe this is just like that! Maybe this is Isen’s way of telling you about that legend.”  
Elsa made a quick glance up but looked away quickly when the reflections copied her. “But…how do I wake her?”  
Scara shrugged. “Don’t know. The legend doesn’t say…but try looking at the mirrors!” The Spring girl turned to face her, her smile fading slightly. “Elsa?”  
Elsa folded her arms around herself, hugging her middle tightly. “I don’t…like to look at them.” The words came out as barely more than a pathetic whimper.   
A gentle hand laid on her shoulder. “Try.” Scara encouraged her with a soft smile.“See what you find when you look.”  
Timidly, Elsa raised her head again, focusing on the slab of ice in front of her. The image of her in the ice did the same, its face closed off with fear and eyes sharp with scrutiny. They confronted each other for a moment, simultaneously begging the other to look away, to find something…   
And then Elsa realized. She was the only one reflected in the ice. Even though Scara was standing right next to her and Marshmallow was ambling around across the room, she was alone in the icy reflection.   
For just a moment, it felt like she was in front of Isen’s Mirror again, not standing in her creation. Everything else faded away until it was just her and the reflection alone in the darkness, illuminated only by a shaft of light from the tiny window behind her. No sound, no walls, nothing but them. There was no singing from the ice. Everything was silent, holding its breath, waiting.  
Elsa stared at her reflection but it was almost like she wasn’t looking into the image but rather looking out of it.  
Her mind flashed to her meditation, to the feeling of something locked away inside the ice, waiting patiently to emerge, mirroring her every move…  
“Elsa!!”  
She blinked and everything came crashing back into focus. Her hand was stretching towards the ice walls of her palace, fingers a mere inch from her reflected face. Scara was staring at her, eyes wide.   
But it wasn’t Scara who had called her.   
Elsa turned around, her heart thudding loudly. “…Reba?”  
It was indeed the young Informer. She was wrapped up in several layers of furs and boots a size too big for her. Her lips were cracked and her face chapped from the wind. She looked as if she had been out here for days although for what reason, Elsa could not possibly fathom.   
“What are you doing out here?” Elsa asked, her mind immediately conjuring the worst. “Where’s Anna? Is she alright?”  
“I am looking for you.” The Informer replied in that unsettling manner that she had. The calm, thoughtful way in which she spoke made her seem twice as old as she looked. Despite having clearly been trekking through the wilderness alone for several days, she stood tall and firm on her own without a hint of fatigue.  
Scara cocked her head at the girl. “Do you know her, Elsa?”  
Elsa nodded slowly. “Yes, she…she’s a friend of my sister.”  
The young girl stumbled a bit and Elsa hurried forward to support her. She conjured a seat of ice for the child and stepped back, wishing she could do more to make the frozen girl comfortable.   
“What are you doing out here Reba?” Elsa asked, fretting worriedly around the girl. “Is Anna okay?” She demanded to know again.  
“As far as I know, yes she is.” The girl replied, looking somewhat relieved to be off her feet. She dropped the bag she had been carrying at the base of the ice seat. “But I have been away from the kingdom for several days so that may no longer be true.” The Informer said flatly.  
Scara spoke up from behind Elsa, where she was pressing the tips of her fingers together gently and intently. “Did you come all the way up here on your own?” She asked Reba quietly.   
“I knew about where Queen Elsa’s palace was from Anna’s stories.” Reba began, folding her hands softly in her lap. She kept her back ramrod straight. “And I have much experience tracking and travelling in the snow, my homeland had winters much like Arendelle. We worshipped the Winter Goddess.”  
Scara stiffened slightly but said nothing. Elsa was staring at Reba. She didn’t think she’d ever heard the Informer talk this much in all the time she’d known her.   
“Where are you from?” The Queen asked the young Informer.  
She half expected Reba not to answer, for her to grow quiet and just peer at her with those omniscient green eyes. But to her surprise, Reba offered her the smallest of smiles. “You wouldn’t know it, it is far from here. But in that land…I was a nobleman’s daughter.”   
Now that she mentioned it, Elsa recognized the signs: the quiet, proper demeanor, the stiffness of her back and neck, her cultured way of speaking. She came from a long line of royalty.   
“I was five when my home nation was invaded by the empire of Almania.” Reba explained. Her eyes glazed over but she kept speaking. “I watched my people die, I watched soldiers take captives, including myself. War is hell. No one should have to live through it.”   
“When I was a slave in Almania,” She continued, her voice remaining strong and unbroken. “I heard stories of the hosts. Monsters, people called them. Devils of the seasons. But I didn’t think so. Every night I longed for a spirit to awaken inside me, for power to overcome the chains that bound me.” She shook her head with a sad smile. “I was never so blessed. So I found my own way out, my own power and freedom. And when I heard about you, Elsa, I knew you would need me one day.”   
Reba stood, but only long enough to lower herself to her knees and bow her head so low it touched the icy floor. “Great Winter Goddess…” She muttered reverently. Elsa took a step back, too shocked to say anything.   
After a few seconds, Reba raised herself and sat back on her heels. “And that day is today.” She continued, her voice hardening. “Arendelle is to be attacked.”  
Panic raced through Elsa. “What?” She cried, advancing on the girl. “How do you know?”  
“Prince Christian of the Southern Isles and Lord Wilfred of North Melonia.” The Informer said, standing up again. “I heard them in the stables during Princess Anna’s wedding. The Prince is obsessed with this verse that Lord Wilfred recited to him. He thinks it speaks of some hidden wealth that he can acquire for the Isles. I knew they were plotting something so I started doing some work of my own. I sent out a message to all my spies in the city, put them up listening everywhere. And I found out that it wasn’t just him and his soldiers. He’s been in contact with people all over Arendelle, people who have lost the most in the Great Freeze. He even sent a message to Weselton at one point, searching for mercenaries.”  
Elsa’s head was swimming. She sank onto the vacated seat. “Why didn’t you tell me any of this?” She asked hollowly.   
“By the time I had all my evidence, you were gone.” Reba said. “I wanted to go to Anna but she had left to follow you. So I took no chances. I left coded instructions with some of the ravens I had befriended in Arendelle and I came out here on my own. I knew that you’d come here eventually, to your Winter Sanctuary. But I couldn’t be sure if it would be in time or not.”  
Elsa was struggling to process all of this. Had she just said she’d left instructions with ravens?  
“So it’s a coup…” She said slowly, fear rising within her. The temperature in the room dropped dangerously lower. “Christian was planning a coup this whole time…Hans must be in on it…planning to go back…” She froze as realization dawned on her. “And Anna is…oh Gods, Anna!” She stood up and starting pacing agitatedly, snow and a tight gust swirling around her. Anna was alone facing this threat. Running their kingdom by herself as it faced a looming coup. She wasn’t there…if anything happened, Anna could be…  
“What was the verse?”  
Elsa stopped short and turned around as Scara softly spoke up. “What?”  
Scara nodded to Reba. “The verse you said this Lord man told the prince. Do you remember what it said?” She asked.   
“Of course.” Reba cleared her throat and recited without a hint of hesitation. “’In the land of ice, where the water meets the stones of old, the night comes alive with lights and power. There, it begins. There, all their dreams be found. A treasure greater than knowledge and wealth. Winter-Summer, Life-Death. All are there, in perfect balance, not a one alone. The daughters have come.’”   
“That’s Ileana’s Prophecy.”  
Elsa blinked and turned to Scara again. “What?”  
Scara glanced at her left hand, watching a tiny clump of pollen swirl around it. “Ileana made a prediction in her last year…a… promise of sorts. She said it was a vision of the future for the Mother’s Children. Erin recorded it and past hosts have meditated on what it means. Theo used to recite it to me when I couldn’t sleep at night.” She closed her fist around the pollen and several flowers sprouted, poking between her fingers. “That’s it…practically word for word.”   
“What does it mean?” Reba asked, watching the Spring host curiously, her green eyes shining at Scara’s powers.   
“No one is sure.” Scara replied, unaware of the younger girl’s admiration of her. “The legends say that Ileana saw it as ‘a guiding light in the darkness to come’. Branna’s hosts have studied it for centuries but they never came to a conclusion about it.”  
“But what does it have to do with what Christian wants?” Reba asked.   
“He knows.” Elsa realized. The others turned to her. “He knows about the hosts.” Elsa clarified. “He must have known about Hans’ power. And when they heard about mine…that was all the proof he needed that there were more of us. And now he wants us together for some reason…to unlock some treasure…” The other two were silent, listening with horror. Elsa felt sick. What did they want with her?  
“’A treasure greater than knowledge and wealth.’” She looked at Scara. “Are there any sacred relics or something? Something that it takes all of us to retrieve or use?”  
Scara shook her head, seeming confused. “No, I don’t think so. We all have our Items but as far as we know, there’s nothing else. And only we can use our Items. They’re useless to humans.”  
“But what happens when we’re all together?” Elsa prompted her, her voice rising.   
“We maintain balance and uphold the cycle.” Scara replied. “Nothing happens, that’s just how it is. We come together to prevent things from happening.”   
Elsa ran a hand through her bangs, leaving frost crackling across her hair. “This coup…has it…is it going on yet?” She asked the Informer.   
Reba shook her head. “The ravens have not flown out here. So I can only assume that no, it…”  
She was cut off by a throaty screech.   
A shaggy black bird swooped out of the sky and perched on the balcony. When it saw Reba, it lifted its wings and flapped them hard, a squawk that could only be described as alarm leaving its beak.  
All three of them drew a collective breath, Elsa’s making the air thick with frost.  
“Now.” Reba said, her voice trembling. “The coup is happening now…” She looked up at the Queen.  
“Oh Merciful Mother…” Scara said, her voice taking on the first hint of fear Elsa had ever heard from her. Scara turned to Elsa. “You’re going back.” It wasn’t a question.  
There was no question. She had to go back. Elsa knew she was probably walking into a trap, playing right into the Southern Isles’ game. But Arendelle…and Anna…  
Reba picked up her discarded bag, slinging it over her shoulder and held out her arm for the raven messenger. It hopped onto her arm and climbed up to her shoulder. “We have to get to Arendelle…” She told the others. “Now.”  
Elsa paced agitatedly once more, ice swirling tightly around her and the temperature dropping dangerously low. In the walls of her ice palace, a million perfect reflections of her copied her every move, right down to the snowflakes encircling her tightly.   
Elsa hardly noticed them. They had to get back now…What was the fastest way to travel?  
***  
They had come to the docks. People from all over Arendelle: woodsmen and farmers, a baker and a blacksmith, even a few sailors and seamstresses. Overall, there were at least four dozen of them assembled. Plus about three dozen Southern Isles soldiers. Scarves were tied over their mouths and noses and they armed themselves with torches and ice picks.   
All of them had one thing in common. They wanted Elsa gone.   
Hans smiled as he approached them, not breaking his stride. It was time. Time for him to finally have what he deserved.   
With his flowing cape and sharp, thick heeled boots, he parted the crowd like a true king. That or the aura of death that clung to him.  
The whispers followed in his wake. “It’s him!” “It’s Prince Hans!” The people watched him eagerly, recalling his excellent leadership during the Eternal Winter. He was the leader they wanted, the leader they deserved. He stepped up onto the pier to address them from above, a slight crisp autumn breeze accompanying him.   
“Welcome, my friends,” he began, smiling charmingly down at them. “Welcome to this glorious day!”  
They cheered and banged their weapons together. Hans smirked. Today was about more than getting his revenge and completing Theo’s task. It was about complete and total destruction. And these people were going to help him achieve it.   
Once, these people had merely been disgruntled by the freak winter in the middle of summer. But Hans had built on that foundation, spread whispers and fostered discontent through the work of his brother until their anger and fear had grown and spread into complete hatred of Elsa and her powers. Now they stood with him and his soldiers, ready to tear Arendelle apart at the seams to unlock its secrets.   
“Queen Elsa has kept us down long enough with your fear of her powers.” Hans proclaimed, raising his fist. “It is time we take back Arendelle from this monster!”  
His troops cheered again.  
“Are you ready to rise against the tyranny of the Ice Queen of Arendelle?” Hans goaded them. They roared their inclination.   
“We are Arendelle’s Freedom Fighters!” Hans shouted, his chest burning with excitement. “And we will take back this kingdom from the monster who rules it! No more shall her icy fear cling to our hearts!”  
“Death to the Ice Queen! Death to the Ice Queen!” They all cheered, milling excitedly together.   
Hans drew in a deep, satisfied breath. They were all fired up. His people would tear apart the city now. And with Theo helping to spread the panic…it was perfect. He had to admit, for a last-minute addition to the plan, the Summer host was proving most helpful.  
His hatred swirled within him, whipped up by a current of premature satisfaction.  
Finally, Elsa would lose everything. Just as he had.  
“Little brother…!”  
Hans froze at the familiar voice. Slowly he turned around. During the commotion, someone had climbed onto the far end of dock.   
A genuine smile lit up his face for the first time that day. “Christian…”  
It had been nearly five months since they had last seen each other.   
His brother looked winded, as if he had run all the way down here. His hair was wispy, his breath was ragged and he clutched his sword hilt tightly. But his eyes were shining with the compassion they only showed for him.   
Letting go of his sword pommel, Christian ran forward, his arms outstretched in a crushing bear-hug to greet his beloved baby brother.   
In the rush of seeing him, Hans forgot himself, forgot his purpose. Forgot his curse. It had never lashed out at Christian before, Christian had always been the only one who had been safe from his power. He had been the one to give Hans the gloves, to calm him down in the Autumn when the voice in his head had tormented him, to bury the bodies of his casualties and make excuses for him. Hans had never feared that his touch would harm the only brother who actually loved him.  
It was only brief, barely more than a fleeting brush of skin. But it was enough. As they embraced tightly, Hans’ cheek ghosted along the skin of his brother’s neck. By the time Hans recoiled in shock, feeling the unforgiving snap of his power across his skin, his brother was already falling limp against him.  
The body fell to the dock with a thud, glassy eyes meeting dull gray ones. The world seemed to stop. Sound muted, colors faded.   
Prince Christian was dead.   
Hans stared across the people below him without seeing them. They were silent, at a loss for what they had just seen. He had gathered them all here to fight a ‘monster’. A dry chuckle escaped his lips. He had forgotten the one within him. Today, he had to kill it too.   
Autumn’s Fury came forth as the Breath filled the air. Dead leaves gathered around Hans as his eyes glowed a dull white.   
“You did this…” Hans seethed, feeling that presence inside his head scream in pain again. His fists clenched painfully tight. “You took him away…”   
The leaves began to lift into an enormous twisting mass. The air filled with the scent of decay and the heavy feeling of death.   
WHY CANT YOU JUST STOP!?  
The Southern Isles Prince stepped off of his platform, the winds carrying him softly to the ground. His eyes snapped downwards.   
“Out of my way!” He commanded, waving his arm at those assembled to listen to his speech.   
But it was a useless order. All around him, his soldiers were crumpling. They choked on his Breath as the diseases of the world infiltrated their defenseless human lungs. Some died right away, others keeled over, coughing or clawing at their skin as slower deaths awaited them. No one was safe from his curse.   
Hans stalked away from them quickly, leaving the fallen corpse of his brother on the dock. Those glassy eyes seemed to bore into him from behind, drilling twin holes in his soul.   
Christian had died with a smile of joy on his face. Happiness at finally seeing his beloved younger brother again.  
And that tore Hans apart more than any spirit ever could.   
"This has to end. I must have my revenge."  
With a flap of his cloak, Hans practically glided away down the streets of Arendelle.   
The leaves spread behind him, the Breath slowly crawling over everything in its path.  
***  
Theo made her way silently down the streets of the city she was to doom to ash. In her borrowed clothes and with her short hair, she was easily mistaken for a traveling man, alone and weary of the world. People hustled by her, hardly sparing a glance. They were more concerned with the Southern Isles ship that had arrived, the closing of the gates and the whereabouts of their queen. One additional stranger was hardly worth a second glance. Theo was bumped and jostled by the people she was to harm but she hardly felt them as they milled around her. She supposed, if she had been herself at this moment and not some kind of human-spirit hybrid, she would have been astounded by the diversity and prosperity of Elsa’s kingdom. The people seemed well and optimistic despite the unease surrounding them. They continued on with their daily tasks, lifting and chopping and driving their animals to market.  
"To have a normal life…"  
Bound as tightly to Branna as she was, it was impossible to distinguish which of them had had that fleeting, wishful thought.  
Theo paused at the doorway to the inn called the Snowflake Tavern. A small fire was burning in a metal grate just outside the door. It was meant for stable hands and weary travelers to warm themselves at if they only wished to stop for a moment instead of for the night.   
It would be the source of Arendelle’s destruction.   
Theo stretched out her hand towards the flame, as if trying to thaw her fingers. But her fingers were never cold. They had never known the feel of true ice except for when they’d touched the Ice Queen.   
"I’m sorry Elsa…"  
The flames seemed to shrink lower and quiver in anticipation as they felt the proximity of Branna’s power. Theo’s jaw clenched in derision at its hungry desire to destroy. Fire was a weapon. Only when it was confined and enslaved did it ever seem good.  
"Am I the same way? Better in a cage? Where I can’t rampantly destroy?  
Do I crave to burn as well?"  
As she stood there, hand outstretched, the flames waiting in smoldering anticipation, the normal people passing by and not sparing her so much as a glance, the Summer host remembered. She remembered the first time she had set something on fire and the hate that had been unleashed because of that. She remembered the heat that had led her only adult friend to his death on an icy lake and the crippling shame that still followed her from it. She remembered the fire that had destroyed an entire forest and nearly killed her Guardian and then the flames that had consumed him on his deathbed. She remembered the internal fire she had smothered by bonding with Branna, the flare of heat and passion she felt whenever she was close to Elsa.  
Theo closed her eyes, concentrating deeply, trying to remember how that last kiss had felt, desperately wanting to bring those sensations to mind one last time before they ceased to matter. But it was impossible. She had no emotions anymore, not even her memories of having emotions could do it justice. There was only Branna’s heat and smoke.   
Back in the forest, Elsa had said positive emotion worked for her. Perhaps the opposite was true for the host of summer. Perhaps in the heat of the flames, only hatred and pain could be found.  
Theo flicked her fingers upwards, feeling the power of heat that rippled through her expand to reach that of the dancing flame before her.   
In a flash, Arendelle began to burn.  
***  
Anna whirled as a flash of light lit up the window. Hand on her sword, she raced to the glass and gazed out at her kingdom.  
“What was that?” Ichtaca asked, jumping to his feet from where he’d been curled on the floor next to the desk.   
Anna didn’t answer him. A strange glow was coming from the lower districts of the city. Almost as if several fires had all been lit in quick succession.   
“Fire…?” Even as she watched, the glow seemed to intensify, almost as if it were steadily moving closer. Arendelle was burning. Quickly.   
“Mam?” Ichtaca had come to stand next to her at the window. He watched the city below them with confusion and a hint of fear.   
Smoke was beginning to rise from the downtown district, accompanied by small tornadoes of dead leaves whirling in the heating air.   
Anna watched one twisting leaf, a strange feeling overcoming her. It was a tingling dread, like knowing lightning was about to strike you, like breathing in the heaviness of a deadly sickness in the air.   
She reacted instantaneously. “Ichtaca, get back!” She barely managed to grab the boy and haul him away from the window before it shattered.   
Instinctively, Anna ducked down to cover the boy with her own body, holding him close as little pellets of glass rained upon her shoulders and back. After a few seconds, she sat up, one hand reaching for her sword.  
At her side, Ichtaca sat up, unhurt and barely phased by the sudden explosion.“Are you alright mam?” He asked Anna.   
But Anna didn’t answer him.   
Because someone was standing at the broken window, glass crunching under their feet as they slowly advanced on her.  
“Hello…Anna.”  
***  
Captain Wulfric was in hell.   
That was the only way he could possibly describe what was going on right now.   
He raced past the burning Snowflake Tavern, people being hauled out as they choked on the thick black smoke pouring from within. Somehow, the flames had leapt from building to building and the whole street was now ablaze.   
How had this happened?   
He ducked as the building next to him flared up unexpectedly, as if it had been doused in oil. Wulfric ran past, his hand on his sword, squashing his panic down as best he could.   
Arendelle had not been to war in nearly a century and for most of the time he had been Captain, the gates had been closed. Trained and competent though he was, he had no experience of war, of the utter desolation and helplessness one feels when a familiar landscape becomes terrifying and hazardous.   
In the less than five minutes since he’d left the palace, Arendelle had erupted into utter chaos.   
Dissenters darted around the burning buildings in the downtown market square, screaming for the death of the Ice Queen and waving ice picks and torches. Ordinary citizens seemed torn and confused, not knowing whether they should be running from the rebels or trying to get water to the multiple fires consuming the town. Many were just huddled in safe spots, clutching their children close and praying it would all end soon.  
He was immensely thankful he’d closed the gates to protect the princess. If these rebels got inside…  
One of the men holding a torch spotted him and shouted something that sounded like ‘palace dog’. Several rebels, all of them with red scarves around their mouths charged him, screaming battle cries and waving torches and ice picks.   
In less time than it took to blink, the Captain’s sword was in his hand. He fended off two blows from men with picks and made a wide sweep with his blade, driving the half-dozen men back a few feet.   
Snarling, a man with a flaming torch in hand leapt forward, aiming for his head.   
Dropping to one knee, he sliced the man’s torch cleanly in half with a practiced cut of his blade. The lit end fell to the ground and extinguished immediately. The rebel froze, dumbfounded and quickly found himself on the ground, courtesy of a punch to the gut from the Captain of the Palace Guard.   
Wulfric smiled kindly down at the man sprawled in the snow.  
“You want to reconsider your words, son?” He asked, spinning his blade expertly in his hand.   
The man scrambled backwards and fled down an alley. His companions glanced at each other then quickly followed suit.  
Wulfric nodded satisfactorily. Just as he’d thought. These rebels were little more than angry citizens with a common goal. They were all cowards with weapons, not trained fighters.   
Looking around, he saw the fires had only spread further, still at their alarmingly fast rate. Already two more buildings were up in flames. He glanced up and down the street, trying to figure out why they were burning so quickly. There were a lot of leaves floating around, far too many for this late in the autumn. Perhaps they had helped carry the fire. The Captain shook his head as a gust of wind flew past him, carrying several of those leaves. A sudden wave of dizziness overcame him and he stumbled. The heat must be getting to him. He coughed heavily.  
“Captain!”  
Wulfric glanced up and was relieved to see his men coming towards him. Several of them looked very tired and more than a little terrified but all of them were armed and ready to respond. His Lieutenant, a lad named Harrison, saluted him quickly. “What are your orders?” The man asked.   
“Get Divisions 1 and 3 mobilized to combat the fires!” Wulfric barked, shaking off his fatigue as best he could to take command of his men. “Division 2 is with me. The rest of you, spread out and protect the citizens! Get as many as you can towards the docks and the beach! Protect Arendelle!”  
“Protect Arendelle!” His men cheered, pumping their swords into the air. They split into their divisions, racing in every direction to combat their foes, be it rebel or flame.   
Wulfric coughed again as his battalion surrounded him. “With me, men!” He cheered, holding his blade aloft. “Let’s chase those rebels back to their holes!” The guard let out a unanimous grunt of approval and drew their weapons. Division 2 fanned out and ran down the street in an arrowhead formation, fending off anyone with a red scarf around their face. Some of the rebels put up a fight, but most just turned tail and ran when they saw the guards coming for them.   
Wulfric decapitated another torch with a swing of his sword and sent the rebel fleeing with a slap of his blade on the lad’s rear. With a nod of approval, he turned away to check on his men. No injuries, although some were coughing rather heavily and Harrison seemed to have broken out in a rash of some kind. Heat blistering? The fires were getting hotter down this end…  
A shout from the man he was watching jolted him back to the task at hand. “Captain!” Harrison was pointing at something behind him. Wulfric turned, following the lad’s indication.  
At the other end of the street, through a slight bottleneck in the buildings leading to an open city square was a figure in a thick dark cloak. The entire square was ablaze, with bits of burning wood tumbling to the ground and embers swirling everywhere. The figure stood completely still as the citizens rushed around them in panic. He waited among the inferno as if he had no fear of the flames.   
“You there!” Wulfric called to them, running a few paces closer. “Clear away!”  
The cloaked figure turned and the Captain took a step back in horror. Ruby red eyes, completely devoid of emotion. The cloak snapped threateningly around their form, held aloft by the rising heat of the flames. The embers of the surrounding flames spiraled around the man, circling his body in concentric ellipses.   
“Sir! Please go!” Wulfric shouted, flashing his blade at them. “It’s not safe here!”  
The strange man just looked at them with those dead, emotionless eyes. He turned to face them completely, the hood slipping from his head to reveal black hair cropped very close to his skull. “Just stay out of my way…” He said softly. The man raised a hand as if to stop him from coming closer.   
Wulfric hefted his sword, considering the threat. The man was alone and wore no scarf. He didn’t seem to be a rebel. He seemed to have no interest in the people rushing by, only in his task of watching the city systematically burning to the ground.   
“Sir?” One of his men asked, eying the man.   
“Approach slowly,” Wulfric commanded him. “do not attack unless he provokes you.”  
He jogged several steps forward, passing through the bottleneck between two burning buildings to reach the open area where the man in black waited. The heat was intense here, he felt sweat drip down his face and smoke sting his eyes.   
“Please, come out of there.” Wulfric called to the man, who had not moved so much as an eyelash. As he approached, the flames all around them all flared up in unison, fingers of flame clawing up into the sky. Wulfric stumbled back as intense heat licked at his face and made the hairs on his arms stand up. Behind him, he heard the men who had been following him cry out in surprise and fear.   
“Stay away.” The cloaked figure said emotionlessly. They raised both their hands. “Or I will kill you.” The flames around them, flickered in their blood-red eyes.  
Wulfric was struck by a sudden realization.   
They were a woman.   
Despite the short hair and the tunic and pants she wore, it was undoubtedly a female who was threatening him. Now that he was close he could see it in her face shape and the slightness of her form.   
“I cant leave you here mam!” He shouted above the roaring flames.  
Her eyes narrowed but no flicker of emotion passed through them. “Pity.”  
She made a grabbing motion at the flames of the buildings and several licks of fire leapt from their bases, gathering in her palm and swirling around her hands.   
“What the…?”   
The woman thrust her hand towards them and the flames jumped eagerly towards them, nipping at their clothes and singeing their hair. Wulfric leapt back, rolling along the cobblestones to extinguish his clothes. His momentum carried him back to his feet, where he readied his sword.  
“Sir!” He had come up next to Harrison, who was struggling to his feet. “Sir! I think she’s controlling the flames!”  
He was stunned. “What? But that’s…impossible…” But even as he said it, he knew it wasn’t. After all, couldn’t their queen control the winter?   
The woman stared at the scattered men, the winds and flames bending around her in a miniature cyclone. Her magic (if that’s what it indeed was) bore an eerie resemblance to Elsa’s, only it expressed itself as a polar opposite to that of the Queen.   
Wulfric found himself desperately wishing that her Majesty had not left again. But she wasn’t here. It was up to them to protect the kingdom. The Captain of the Guard lifted his sword. “Surround and attack!” Wulfric commanded his men. “Defend Arendelle from the fire-witch!”  
His men responded with a roar and hastened to follow orders. The woman didn’t move, just stood there with the flames circling her.   
The men rushed her but a strong hot gale pushed out from her in all directions, knocking seasoned soldiers off their feet easily. Captain Wulfric slammed heavily into the doorway of a house, the ashen wood crumbling under his weight. He fell in a boneless heap to the ground among charred beams and ashes. He tried to stand, shaking his head to clear his vision but everything was hazy. He rolled back into the street, forcing his feet under him, his hands scrabbling for his sword. A shadow fell across him and he looked up.   
Above him, the woman held a shaking fistful of flames.   
“I am truly sorry…” The woman said in that same emotionless voice. She twisted her wrist and the flames began to curl towards him, heat licking at his face.  
But before they could touch him, there was a huge gust of icy wind that sent even the woman stumbling. The storm howled through the city, snuffing out fires and sending the leaves tumbling wildly through the air. The snow was blinding, drifts piling up in mere seconds until the cobblestone streets looked like pure white marble.  
Everyone looked up as a thick swirl of wind and snow touched down in the middle of the square, spinning like a tornado and flinging out harsh shards of ice that pricked at all exposed skin. The sharp wind whipped along the thin corridor between the buildings, ice scouring wood and snow building up everywhere.  
When it cleared, Queen Elsa stood in the middle of the square.


	17. The Ascent of Isen

For a moment, neither woman moved. The winds stirred quietly around them: one searing hot, the other icy cold as they stared at one another.   
Elsa shook her head slowly, unable to comprehend what she was seeing.   
“Theo…” She asked in a trembling voice. “what…what are you doing?” The street was ruined, the burned out shells of buildings smoking and crumbling. Theo stood alone, hot wind stirring her cloak and embers circling her form tightly. She watched Elsa with that same blank expression that had disturbed Elsa so much back at the temple.  
“Your Majesty!” Elsa was too fixated on Theo to notice her Captain trying to get her attention. Wulfric glanced between the two women, not knowing how he should react in this situation. Harrison raced to his side and helped him rise unsteadily to his feet. He winced as he straightened out. One of his ribs was broken, he was sure.   
“Sir?” Harrison asked him quietly.  
“Get the men out of here.” Wulfric told him, not taking his eyes off the Queen. “We need to get everyone away from here as fast as we can.”   
Elsa had no visible reaction as her soldiers collected their wounded and marched away from the smoldering square as quickly as they could. She might as well have been a statue for all her worth. But the second Theo moved, she snapped to respond. A biting wind raced through the desolate square, whipping the snow into the menacing shapes of spears and birthing several sharp icicles pointing at the summer host. Snow gathered in the Queen’s palms until she held a magnificent sword of ice.   
Elsa pointed the blade at the other girl. “Why are you here, Theo?” She asked, her voice and hands shaking with emotions she had never wanted to feel again. “Why are you destroying my kingdom?!” Tears pricked her eyes when Theo did not respond or even react to what she was saying. She just kept looking at her with those blank, dead eyes. Like her soul had been sucked out of her and left to drift through hellfire.   
“What is going on?” Elsa cried, the fear and dread within her whipping up bitter gusts of wind.   
Theo blinked, slowly, deliberately. “Drop the weapon, Elsa.” She finally said, in a flat voice that sounded like a strangers’. “I will not fight you like a human come to war.”  
Elsa felt her grip tighten on the sword. “You and I are human.” She told the summer host. “Or have you forgotten that?”  
Theo shook her head. “We are not human.” She reminded Elsa decisively. “We are the hosts. And we will not squabble like petty men.” A hot gust of wind whipped around her, nipping at Elsa’s cold air and forming small puffs of condensation in the space between them.  
The sword fell apart in Elsa’s hand, the snow drifting back to the ground. “Theo, please…” She pleaded, her heart clenching. “stop what you are doing and let’s…”  
“I cannot stop.” Theo interrupted, her fists clenched tightly at her sides.  
Elsa shook her head frantically. “Yes, you can! Please! Please stop…” Tears were starting to gather in the corners of her eyes, frozen to harsh pricks by her wind.   
“Are you under the illusion that Theonia is in control of her actions right now?”  
The harsh clip to her words sent an unpleasant realization through Elsa. “What? Branna are you…?” She studied the woman in front of her, anger beginning to build within her. “Are you controlling her?” She asked, her voice shaking for an entirely different reason now.  
If this was only the spirit, perhaps there was a chance Theo was not involved. Perhaps there was a way she didn’t have to destroy the body before her or feel this terrible pain.  
But Theo shook her head. “Branna couldn’t do that even if she wanted to. She does not control us, we merely share one existence.” Her voice had a strange timbre to it. As if two voices: one very old and the other comparatively young, has been merged together. “Theonia gave in.” The summer host continued. “It is a form of the highest trust between a host and their spirit. We agreed to fuse our minds and souls so we could do what was necessary without causing her more anguish.”  
Elsa was still lost. “But…why? Why must you do this?” She gestured around her at the destruction and the smoke in the air. “What does destroying my kingdom do?”  
A flicker of something passed over the summer host’s face. But it was gone within the blink of an eye. “I don’t have to justify my actions to you.” She replied, the wind snapping angrily around her, even as her voice remained flat. “You know nothing of the pain we have felt. The things we have done to ensure that balance remains. We have lived more human lifetimes than you could possibly conceive.” Embers adrift in the air began to flare again, snapping briefly into flames before dying. The hot wind had picked up and tiny sparks snapped at Theo’s smoking fingers.   
Elsa watched all this, sad and desperate. “Maybe, but I know Theo. She never wanted this.”  
The stranger before her scoffed as best she could with no emotions to back it up. “Do not be so pretentious.” She replied. “You know nothing of her either. Her sacrifices are greater than even those of the spirits. She has lost everything for this balance: her family, her friends, her Guardian, the trust of her sister spirits and now she is even willing to alienate herself from the one she loves…just to be sure Branna’s love is returned to her.”  
Elsa blinked. One particular phrase stuck in her mind. “Alienate herself from the one she…?”   
“She is sacrificing her very heart and soul to ensure that we restore balance.” Theo continued, not noticing, or simply not caring about Elsa’s inquiry. It stung more than the Queen was willing to admit.   
“If she truly wants this,” Elsa began, gesturing helplessly at the ruined square. “If this was what she wanted all along…then why hasn’t she acted before? She’s had many opportunities to do this, so why now?”  
“She was searching.”  
“For what?”  
“For…another way. I didn’t want to cause you unnecessary pain.”  
Even without the shift in pronouns, Elsa would have realized that Theo was back. Her eyes had come alive again, her entire frame had uncoiled as she came back into herself. The fires around her had dimmed considerably as she fought back tears.   
“For months I fought back as she tried everything she could to force me to obey her.” The girl was trembling, shaking uncontrollably.   
Elsa took a step forward, holding out her hand. “Theo…stop this. Please.”  
Her plea fell on deaf ears. Theo didn’t seem to hear her. “But it was all for naught. This is inevitable Elsa.” She shuddered, the force of it making her stumble.   
Elsa paused. “How can you say that?” She asked, shocked.   
Theo stared at nothing. “I’ve lived through it.” She fell to her knees in the snow, her hands over her ears. “We must lose everything we love so our spirit can awake in this world.” Hot wind swirled around her, the flames surging and faltering at uneven intervals. “Family…friends…siblings. It is all an impossible dream for beings like us. We must be alone. No matter what the sacrifice.”  
“Sacrifice…” Elsa stared at the woman on the ground, her anger returning. “My kingdom is not a sacrifice I am willing to make.”  
“It is one you must make.” Theo replied, clenching her stubby hair through her fingers. “We have all lost that which we love…sacrifice is inevitable.”  
“You can’t know that!”  
“Yes I can!” Theo shouted. Slowly her hands fell from her ears and dangled limply by her sides. “…Because I’ve already given mine…” Theo looked up at the Queen, tears streaming down her face. “Once…I had a brother.”  
Elsa was silent. Both of their winds had ceased, dying down into little more than a slight change in temperature around them.   
Theo winced as if she had been pricked with a thousand needles all at once. “…he was…he was only two…” Her voice choked and she clutched at her chest desperately. The embers around her flared and spun through the air. “I fought but I had no idea what I was, that I was the reason he couldn’t exist. I kept setting the cabin on fire and then saving him from the blaze.” She forced her eyes open, staring at the snow under her as if it could wipe away the memories. “It took me forever to realize that I had to stop fighting to be free.” She finished quietly, in a voice completely detached from emotion.   
Elsa couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “What?”  
“I had to kill him. I was supposed to kill him. It was beyond my control. But I loved him. So much.” Tears glistened in her eyes again but did not fall. “The Mother told me this the first time she spoke to me. She told me the truth about why my parents kicked me out. Because of his influence over me, my powers would always seek to destroy that one I loved most. Branna knew, even sleeping, that she could not be influenced by another human. So I severed my bond with that brother…” She sighed heavily, shakily. “and I left him behind.”  
The silence stretched between them for a long moment, unbroken and heavy with the darkness of the past.   
“So…he’s alive?” Elsa asked hesitantly after she could stand the silence no longer.   
Theo shrugged helplessly. “I don’t know. And I don’t want to know.” She gave a strangled half-laugh, half-sob. “I cant ever know. I cant love him or else Branna will be forced to destroy him.”  
Several dead leaves drifted by them, twisting unnaturally in the air. They drifted past the glowing remains of the Snowflake Tavern and burst into flame, smoking and drifting until nothing of them remained.  
“That doesn’t make any sense!” Elsa said after a moment of contemplation. “If you love him…why… why?”   
“A single person cannot hold all that power over a season.” Theo said, as if it were the simplest thing in the world.  
Elsa felt her eyes narrow to slits. “We do.” She replied.  
“That is why we are locked away.” Theo replied, unmoved by Elsa’s anger. She spoke without emotion once more, as if just stating cold facts. “If I loved him, I would have become too dangerous in an effort to protect him. My powers would have spiraled out of control, as yours have in the past. He would have control over my emotional state and therefore, control over the powers of summer. I would have burned forests for him. If he ever hurt me, I would scorch the land with eternal summer.”   
Elsa recalled the crippling freeze her fight with Anna had set upon this very kingdom. She remembered the pain of keeping herself away from Anna and the instability of her powers as she struggled to shut her sister out. She glanced around her now, at the swirling snow and wind that was born of her desire, her need to protect Anna.  
“Our emotions manifest as physical things,” Theo was saying, her gaze roaming the snow and flame-licked buildings around them. “…so the root of all connection to the outside has to be severed, to prevent us from forming attachments. Family, parents, friends…Sibling bonds are the strongest kind. So they must be prevented. In every way.”  
Everything seemed to go silent as Elsa turned to look at her again. “What do you mean…every way?”  
Theo met her gaze, her eyes shining with something horrible that Elsa did not understand. Yet. “The trolls had another job.” Theo began. “They were not just our scribes and healers. They were also our protectors, though in a different capacity than our Guardian. And in a way, far more important.” She paused, as if contemplating finishing what she meant to say. “They must prevent us from loving and being loved by humans. They are, after all, Love Experts.”   
Elsa said nothing, but memories of the rock trolls came back to her, their knowledge of her powers, the way they cared for Anna when she had hurt her…  
Theo raised her head to the darkening, orange sky. “Master Pabbie has the blood of a hundred host siblings on his hands. And thousands more of the siblings who remain unborn.” Her voice shook but her face remained impassive as she spoke. “His job was to make the mother of a host infertile and kill any children produced from the same womb as the host. And then he would erase all memory of the host child from their parents and of the parents from the host. It was the only way to ensure the hosts’ powers would not seek and destroy in the name of love.  
“But he gave up his role just before our generation. Hence why I still remember my family, why Scara killed her parents and why you grew up here instead of with us. He should have killed Anna before she was even born. Or when she was small, before you and her had the chance to become close. But now he’s waited too long and it’s too late.”  
Elsa was breathing heavily, unable to accept these new horrible truths. “But no…my powers…as soon as I accepted my love of Anna, they fell under my control…”  
“Are they?” Theo asked, her face drawn. “Do you have complete control?” Elsa nodded but Theo ignored her. “You are bound to this kingdom, to your sister instead of to your spirit. Anna controls you, so you cannot be free.” She told the Queen.  
Elsa opened her mouth to argue but no words came.  
“Do you see now why your powers always seemed to want to hurt her?” Theo asked, watching her carefully. “Why all your life, you desired to protect her but it seemed that subconsciously, you wanted to remove her from your life at the same time?” Theo stretched one hand out towards her, slowly rising back to her feet. “Isen knows, deep inside you…so long as Anna lives, you and her cannot be one. Once Anna is dead, once that bond is severed, Isen will wake.”  
Elsa wanted to collapse. Her head was spinning, she couldn’t stand straight or see clearly. Breathing became labored, her whole frame shook. Those words echoed endlessly in her head, making her feel like she was falling down a dark abyss.   
Anna must die…Anna must die…  
But there was no choice. The decision had been made before she had locked herself away. Before she had struck her sister. Before she had even discovered her powers.   
I wont let anyone hurt her.  
Without even thinking. Elsa shot her power at Theo’s hand, freezing it in a block of ice. Stunned, the summer host stared at it for several seconds. The ice bondage slowly melted as her natural heat leaked into it. The summer host clenched her fist.   
“So this is how you want it to be….” Her voice had shifted again. Whatever trace of Theonia there had been left disappeared back under the frighteningly blank mask she wore.   
“I wont let you hurt my sister!” Elsa shouted at her, her nails digging painfully into her palms. “You will not harm her or my kingdom anymore!”  
The snow swirled behind her and rose into an enormous cyclone of whirling ice. Elsa was the center of this storm and the source. Icicles rose from between the cobblestones and dripped from the remaining wreckage of buildings. Theo gazed up at the spectacle, her eyes burdened with knowledge of the unavoidable.   
“I have no choice, Elsa.” She said quietly. The summer host widened her stance, fists held out at her sides. The smoldering embers in the buildings breathed back into flames and leapt eagerly to their commander. A tight ring of fire spiraled around Theo, the heat making her form waver and steam in the cold air.  
Elsa raised her hands, compressing the cyclone. Theo lowered her hands, the flames growing higher.   
“This is the only choice.” Theo said grimly. “Either your kingdom falls…or the cycle breaks.”  
Elsa glared at her. For her, at least, there had never been a choice to begin with. “Very well…”  
Eyes narrowed, hearts clenched. Deep inside, two spirits wept. Far away, the Mother closed her eyes.   
Elsa swirled her hands around, Theo thrust hers forward.  
The fire met ice and steam filled the square.  
Winter and Summer clashed in the land where water met the stones of old. Over their heads, the sky darkened to an ominous orange, even though there were no clouds in sight, the daylight faded as if the sun had been blotted out. The lights appeared, streaks of bright red in the sky, like bleeding tears in the fabric of reality. They shifted blindingly from blue-green to a burning orange-red, flickering like flames and blasts of ice over the burning city.   
It seemed as if all of nature paused as the battle raged. Even the waves on the shore ceased moving as the spirits clashed, frozen mid-crest by forces more powerful than they, the sand they carried forever suspended against gravity. Such a fight had never before been witnessed in all of time.  
***  
The bizarre storm raged through the town, sand and scorching heat swirling and mixing with snow and bitter cold. Those remaining in the area found it hard to tell what season it was as the spirits fought. One second their teeth were chattering at the howling gale, the next the hairs on their arms were prickling and singeing from a blast of heat.   
Overhead, lightning split the sky and the lights shone hotly. The earth trembled under their feet, quaking with a force like they’d never felt before.   
In the confusion and utter terror of the two spirits at war, causes were forgotten, arguments and principles were abandoned, cast by the wayside like broken weapons. The people fell back to their most natural instincts as they realized just how small and insignificant they were next to these gods. They turned to each other with the same thought in mind: escape.   
The wounded were carried, the elderly guided, paths were cleared by soldiers, children scouted ahead. Freedom Fighter and Arendelle guard alike grasped arms and hauled each other free of the flames and the snow. The people of Arendelle carried each other to their salvation, enemy on enemy, neighbor on stranger, fighter on civilian.   
And at their lead (if this massive movement of refugees had a distinguished front and back) was a small, quiet girl with a snowflake pinned to her lapel and a raven on her shoulder.  
***  
Kristoff swore he was not going to make a habit of this. Sven cantered across the icy cobblestones, doing his best not to slip as they raced towards the palace. Icy wind and sand bit at his face and he had to keep wiping his eyes to clear the tears of pain from them. The ominous color of the sky had spread, almost with him as he returned from the mountains. Something was not right. And with his new knowledge of the troll’s tasks…   
His thoughts were only of his wife and their unborn child. So much so that he barely registered the fact that weather this severe could only mean Elsa had returned.  
Sven skidded to a halt, barely avoiding a collision with the tightly closed palace doors.  
No…  
Kristoff leapt from the reindeer’s back and pounded on the door. “Open the gates! Open the gates! Anna! ANNA!”   
No one answered. Sven moaned quietly, still breathing heavily from the long run. Kristoff fell against the wooden doors, trembling.   
“No…no…Anna…”  
“Kristoff!”  
The ice man whirled at the sound of his name, reaching for his ice pick in self-defense.   
Dagrun beamed up at him from the shadows near the guardhouse. “You wont git in tha’ way.” The spy said with a cheeky grin. “Follow me!”  
***  
This was like nothing Elsa had ever done with her powers before. This all-out fight against another so powerful, against someone she had grown to care for.   
Her powers humming, she swirled her arms around her head, the snowflakes following her motions and shot a volley of icicles at Theo’s burning form.   
Theo inhaled sharply and an enormous tongue of fire burst from her mouth, engulfing the projectiles before they reached her and leaving only steam behind. The remaining flames shot over Elsa’s head and set fire to another building.  
The effort of such a feat left the summer host stumbling, vulnerable. But still Elsa hesitated. Just like she had the last three times this had happened.  
“Stop Theo.” She stepped forward as the girl tried to recover, ice spreading under her feet. “You know you cant win against me. Just stop.”   
Red eyes met hers. “I am at my weakest and your power only seems to grow.” Theo acknowledged. “I have no doubt you will eventually best me and be on your way.” She offered nothing else. No explanation, no regret. Just acceptance.   
Theo widened her stance and swirled her arms in a tight spiral. The flames burning in the building beside her roared higher and jumped to surround her. She gathered them into a tight ball and punched forward, sending the flames roaring at Elsa. With a flick of her wrist, a cold blast of air extinguished the fireball coming at Elsa.  
The ease with which Elsa had negated her attack seemed to have no effect on Theo. Sand gathered around her and she whipped up a stinging cyclone to send Elsa’s way. At the same time, Elsa felt the flames in the building behind her burn higher, creeping towards her on a hot gust of wind.   
She spun quickly in a circle, encasing herself in an ice shell. The sand scratched along the outside first, followed almost immediately by a blast of heat. She felt her ice start to sweat but it held. She pushed out, shattering her protection and sending the shrapnel towards Theo. The summer host threw herself out of the way, rolling in the snow to break her fall. She had barely gotten her feet back under her when she blew another burst of flames from her mouth, aiming them at another building.   
The Queen acted quickly, sending strong gusts of icy wind over the flames to smother them before they spread. Steam rose everywhere they touched.   
Elsa was reminded of the first time they’d fought, back in Theo’s meditation room when careless words had made them come to blows.   
She realized now, perhaps a little ironically, summer and winter would always be at odds with each other. The same way she and Theo always had. All the little fights, the tension, the stark differences and similarities between them…They had always been heading towards this final explosion of fire and ice.   
They moved slowly through the city, trading blow for blow, Elsa’s ice easily consuming Theo’s flames and Theo’s flames melting Elsa’s snow. A trail of destruction was left in their wake: singed wood and shattered stones torn apart by icicles. Sand and snow flew everywhere.  
Both of them were producing winds that constantly pushed against each other: Theo’s hot air rising over Elsa’s blustery cold one, each assaulting the other with gusts. Their temple dresses snapped about their forms, streaks of red and blue slicing into the fabric as they fought, changing the established patterns they had created.   
They were getting close to the palace now, moving through the part of town that housed the guard, visiting dignitaries and supplies for the entire city. The main gates were only two streets away. The market was the next street over.  
Theo planted her feet on the ground and closed her eyes. Sand began to trickle from between the stones, forming enormous mounds that rivaled Elsa’s snowfall. Pressing her fists together, Theo’s skin began to glow a smoldering red.   
An enormous wave of heat raced everywhere with crippling speed. Sand melted into molten glass a foot thick. Thinking quickly, Elsa sent ice down, raising herself above the hot, sticky trap on a frozen pedestal. Theo’s eyes followed her ascent, emotionless and hard.   
The summer host turned on the spot, flinging her hands out in a spiral around her.  
Slowly, the rest of the glass solidified. Elsa heard the sound of ice splintering and glanced down in shock. The glass was cracking the base of her pedestal, threatening to topple it.   
As the pedestal lurched, Elsa jumped, sending ice and snow out in front of her as she fell to try to slow her fall. Theo watched her, readying an enormous fireball in her hand.   
Elsa landed hard on a mix of her snow and ice, moving the ice beneath her feet to keep herself from sprawling on all fours on Theo’s glass floor. But even then, she stumbled, horribly off-balance and wide-open for an attack.  
Their eyes locked. Time slowed.   
They both saw it, Elsa was turned too far away, Theo was perfectly aimed to strike. It was a moment created from luck, Elsa’s lack of training and the summer host’s years of work. It should have been Elsa’s downfall. But instead, Theo pivoted just slightly too far and her burst of flames shot wide of Elsa, roaring harmlessly down an empty street.   
Elsa continued to slide away from Theo, creating new ice as she went, keeping her momentum going with blasts of icy air. Something was bothering her about this.   
Theo was throwing everything she had into this fight, working herself to exhaustion just to hold Elsa here. But she wasn’t even trying to hurt her. Something wasn’t adding up.   
Elsa swirled the air, sending a tight blast of snow at Theo. The summer host side-stepped, returning the exchange with a volley of fire blasts. Most of them flew wide and set fire to the adjacent abandoned market stands. Elsa extinguished everything as quickly as she could but that only gave Theo more time to recover and attack again. The grain exchange caught fire and flared in the darkness. Her stomach churning, Elsa turned away. As much as it pained her to watch, she would have to let Arendelle burn if she were to gain the upper hand in this fight.   
"She is ready to die fighting me…" Elsa realized, "and she will take as much with her as she can before she goes."  
This time, instead of putting out the new fires, Elsa skated away from Theo, closer to where the palace walls rose from the city, shooting the occasional icicle or blast of snow Theo’s way.   
The summer host followed slowly on a moving mound of sand, deflecting and melting the attacks. Elsa skated out of sight around the final corner, but not before sending a large snowball rolling Theo’s way. The summer host paused, summoned her strength and turned the sand under her feet into a ball of glass. The two collided, glass sliding through snow and melting it into a puddle. Theo side-stepped the water and raced around the corner, letting her glass ball smash itself into pieces against the buildings, killed by its own momentum.   
She turned the corner, panting, and found herself facing a tall, smooth rock wall. The wall of the palace. There was no sign of Elsa.   
Theo glanced around the square but saw no signs of the Queen. Where could she have gone?  
A cool breeze at her back was her only warning. She turned.  
Elsa slid forward rapidly, bearing down on Theo from the rooftops of the buildings opposite on an enormous sheet of advancing ice, her palms glowing with her blue light of winter.   
Too late, Theo realized Elsa had just backed her into a trap. The ice snapped forward faster than Theo could blink or even think to summon her flames. She slammed into the wall of the palace, the ice quickly wrapped around her middle, up over her shoulders and across her arms to hold her against the wall.   
The ice shone wetly at the proximity to Theo’s heat but held for the moment. Theo struggled but could go nowhere.   
“Stop Theo!” Elsa slid up to her height on the sheet of ice and pleaded with her. “Please…just stop.”   
Theo pulsed briefly with heat but it was a sad echo of her former strength. The ice began to drip but she still could not pull free. “I’m trying to save you Elsa!” She cried out. “To save us all!”  
Elsa hadn’t expected that. “Save me?”   
Theo seemed deranged, she twisted and pulled at her restraints but they were melting far too slowly, as if her powers had just dimmed considerably. “I have to remove Anna…or else your power will never be tamed! The world will fall apart and all of us: humans, hosts, spirits even, will perish!” Dead leaves gusted past them on the wind, twisting unnaturally. Still, Theo continued, her voice shaking. “The seas will rise and flood the earth, the glaciers descend and freeze the lowlands, the mountains shake and crumble without Isen to balance them! Branna and Livet will lose power, until they too are gone. And all that will remain is Death.”  
Her head fell to her chest and she took several deep breaths. “But I can stop all of this…we can stop it…” Her head rose slowly, eyes searching Elsa’s.  
“By murdering my sister!?” Elsa snapped, ice forming at her hands as her anger and disgust roiled within her.   
“It will set you free.” The summer host replied. Her bonds finally melted and Theo fell heavily to the snow. Dropping back to the ground, Elsa readied herself to trap her again but paused when Theo stumbled back to her feet, looking far too worn out to fight. “Anna is the only thing keeping you sealed off from Isen, the only thing holding back your birthright.”  
Tiny flames came to life in her hands but they were little more than embers, hardly capable of lighting a candle. Nonetheless, she kept throwing them, still attacking even as her strength dwindled. Elsa extinguished them easily, her heart twisting. “Anna is the reason that the seasons are falling apart.” Theo continued, forcing the words out around her labored breaths. “She is keeping you from the temple, causing the seasons to be unbalanced. Her love for you and your love for her is preventing you and Isen from bonding. Because of your attachment to her, Isen will not wake! The seasons are responding, spiraling out of control, causing extreme weather patterns across the world. Once she dies, once the bond is broken, Isen will be free again. Everything will be as it should be.”  
Elsa blasted her with cold wind, not enough to knock her over but enough to make it impossible for her to summon more fire. As the wind faded, Theo slumped, shivering as her powers slowly recovered. Elsa settled herself into a fighting stance, ice dancing along her fingers. “If you think I’m going to let you kill my sister just to fulfill some kind of requirement…”  
Theo looked up at her, her red eyes dull and bloodshot. “I know you will not.” Her eyes shown with sorrow and, to Elsa’s amazement, guilt. As if she had suddenly been doused in water, the tiny flames in Theo’s hands went out and she fell to her knees as if begging for forgiveness.  
“That’s why I’m just the distraction.” She said quietly.  
When Elsa realized just what those words meant, the blood froze in her veins. She looked up at the palace, her heart thudding dully in her chest. No..no, maybe there was still time…  
But then she felt it. And once she felt it, she wondered how she had ever missed it. That heaviness in the air. The energy-sucking wind that crushed all hope and fostered despair.   
The same Breath that had stolen upon Hans’ palace.   
“Anna…”  
Death was here.   
Theo’s head fell to her chest. “I’m so sorry, Elsa. There was no other way.”  
Elsa barely heard her.  
Anna was dead. While she’d been fighting Theo, Hans had entered the castle and taken her life. Her sister was gone.   
She cracked. Her entire self just broke, shattered like an icicle crashing to the stones. Deep inside, Elsa felt even her heart splinter. The storm came pouring forth, racing through every particle of her being. Raging as it never had before.   
Winter had come.  
***  
Anna stared in horror at the face she had never wished to see again.  
Hans smirked at her. “Hello sweetheart.” He said in his low drawl. His eyes were bloodshot (and gray instead of green) and his voice was raspy but it still carried all the malice she remembered from all those months ago. “Miss me?”  
“Hans…” She couldn’t think of anything else to say so what came out was: “what happened to your nose?”  
His eyes flashed in annoyance and Anna felt a tiny spark of triumph. “What do you think?” He snarled. “You broke it when you punched me.”  
“What a shame, I’d always considered it your best feature…” Anna backed up, pulling Ichtaca with her as Hans stepped forward. Her hand went to her sword, twitching to draw it.  
“You ruined me.” Hans seethed. “This is all your fault…”  
“What is?” Anna asked innocently, pushing the boy behind her father’s desk as she stalled for time. Hans was unarmed but she knew how dangerous he was. She tried to sum him up as he slowly stalked them, watching for signs he was going to attack. But if anything, he seemed content to draw this out, his steps slow and purposeful, his eyes glinting. Good, that gave her time to figure out a strategy.  
Hans barked out a laugh at her question. “As if you knew.” He snapped at her. “As if your tiny mind could comprehend just what you have done to me.”  
Anna readied another retort, keeping half an eye on Ichtaca, who looked ready to tackle Hans at any given moment. She tried to subtly warn him to stay back but he wasn’t looking at her.   
“Did your brothers finally allow you to leave the palace again?” She asked in a false calm voice, trying to keep Hans talking. “Finally decided you’d learned your lesson?”  
Hans visibly stiffened and the air around him seemed to crackle.  
“I have far fewer brothers now.” He spat in her face, a vein in his forehead pulsing. “Thanks to you and the curse you have awakened in me.”  
Anna paused, confused.  
“What? What are you talking about?”  
Hans rolled his eyes. “Of course, you have no idea.” He muttered in a low voice. “You were the cause of your sister’s curse too and even then you couldn’t figure it out.” He glanced up at her, his gray eyes glinting maliciously. “Oh well, your ignorance is not reason for mercy.”   
The air in the room suddenly thickened, Anna finding it hard to draw breath. Her entire body felt flushed, as if she had suddenly come down with a fever. A crushing feeling of despair washed over her and she trembled. Behind her, she heard Ichtaca let out a wet cough, as if he had just gotten a bad cold. What was happening?  
“But no more stalling…” Hans continued, smiling wickedly at her obvious discomfort. “I shall have what I came for…”  
Several of the leaves scattered around the floor slowly began to circle him. They travelled up his frame, cycling all the way out to his empty left hand. There, they came together, sticking to each other in unnatural shapes, changing form and shining with a dull white light…  
Anna gasped loudly as the sword built itself in Hans’ grip. The Southern Isles prince hefted the completed weapon with a fond smile.   
“Now that’s better…I missed the feel of this blade…”  
Anna and Ichtaca both stared at the sword with wide-eyed fear. The blade shone hotly even in the relative darkness of the study. Something about it just screamed: EVIL!  
The princess had to swallow several times before she could say anything. “You…you have powers?” She finally asked. “Like Elsa?”   
Hans’ eyes narrowed. “Not quite like Elsa…” He replied, “you see, where her gift killed you slowly, mine…” He lashed out suddenly, grabbing for the toad lily from the garden from where Anna had laid it on the desk before his arrival. His finger had barely brushed it before it choked, shriveled and crumbled to dust.   
“..is instant.” Hans spat.   
Fear clutched at Anna’s heart as she watched his powers at work. His were nothing like Elsa’s. They were warped, dark, and awful. She saw nothing beautiful in them.  
“So…so you’re…death?” She asked him as he picked up the dust in his hand and rubbed it between his fingers. “Are your powers those of death?”  
“Death…Autumn…whatever you wish to see it as.” He said off-handedly, watching the dust fall from his grip and scatter in the wind.  
Anna choked on her own breath. It seemed so ironically cruel that she had been seeking information about others like Elsa and instead Hans had shown himself to be exactly who she was looking for. She could not bear to think that he and Elsa could be similar in any way. But if Elsa was indeed Winter…Hans could only be Autumn by comparison.  
Anna gripped the pommel of her sword as she leaned heavily on the desk, trying not to throw up.   
“So your brother…” She stammered, struggling to make sense of everything. “Christian…he was…trying to kill me?”  
Something like grief passed over Hans’ face but faded so swiftly it might have been humor. “Anna,” Hans said, as if addressing a particularly stupid child. “if he had wanted to kill you, he would have done so months ago. He knew you had to be left for me.”  
Anna swallowed hard. “How…kind of him.”  
“Christian and I began planning this a long time ago.” Hans said, carelessly swinging his sword and making Anna flinch. “We knew that to take over Arendelle, we would need more time, what with Elsa’s powers coming under her ‘control’. So I waited, and he sowed the seeds of fear among her people. How better to take over a kingdom than from the inside, using fear? A fear that is already firmly established, just festering in the background. We took advantage of that.  
“Christian’s purpose here was more than that though. He was to learn about the rumored ‘others’ like me and gain Elsa’s trust. He was going to get Elsa to explain how she kept control. How she kept herself hidden all those years with no ill consequences. She was going to teach me control. Free me from this curse.” His eyes shone with desperation. “A treasure greater than any knowledge or wealth…the freedom from a power such as this.” He paused for a moment, as if lost in his fantasy and Anna considered stabbing him right then and there. “And then with her out of the way,” Hans continued, gesturing vaguely “I would find my other peers and destroy them as well.”  
“But something went wrong.” Anna guessed. “Christian failed.”  
Hans’ gaze immediately darkened. “He didn’t fail!” He roared thrusting his face towards Anna’s. To her credit, Anna didn’t flinch. Hans made a sweeping gesture towards the window behind them, where the screams of civilians and the smell of smoke drifted inside. “Look outside! Look at the rebellion that is tearing apart your kingdom! All because of their fear of Elsa!”  
Anna held his gaze, refusing to look away. Captain Wulfric had the situation under control, he had to…and Elsa would be back soon. No way she was going to let Arendelle fall apart.   
Hans took her silence for acknowledgment of the words he spoke. “No, Christian didn’t fail…” The prince continued, straightening up and smoothing his hair down with his free hand. “he simply took too long.  
“When the months went by and my suffering at the hands of my brothers continued, I broke. My powers killed my father and I ran away, taking my curse with me. I knew it would take something desperate to bring Elsa to me, to make sure my plan would continue to fruition. So I sent an assassin under the guise of Weselton’s revenge. He was to elicit a reaction from the people, make them doubt their Queen’s integrity and strength. People had to see that she wasn’t invincible. That was when our plans would be set in motion.”  
“The invasion…” Anna realized, shooting a furtive glance at the window.   
Hans smirked. “We planned it perfectly. A secret network of Whispers. Nothing substantial enough to be considered a threat until it was too late. Christian is the best spy master the Isles have ever had.”  
Anna and Ichtaca exchanged a glance, both of them horrified and terrified that such an important thing had slipped through their network.  
“And Fate gave me another ally.” Hans continued, twirling his sword. “Another who wishes you to be removed. Turns out you have more enemies than you believe.”  
Hans gestured out the window, where the glow of the burning Arendelle shone from the streets. “Summer is out there right now burning Arendelle to the ground…ensuring that those who are still loyal to the Queen have nothing left.” He lifted his sword and gazed at it with reverence, “and when she has finished her good work, my blade will pierce her heart. I will become Arendelle’s hero and king. And where was Elsa when her people needed her most? Helping Summer. Hiding out with her. She will be chased out of Arendelle. Hated as a witch.”   
He swung his sword wildly, the tip stabbing deep into her father’s desk. “And as the new ruler of this land, I will take possession of its greatest treasure and continue my quest to rid this world of the curses like mine!” Hans placed one foot on the edge of the desk as if manically posing for a sculpture. “The Spirits will all be feared and hunted, as they should be. And Arendelle shall be mine.”  
Anna’s head was hurting, trying to take all of this in. “But why?” She finally asked. “Why do you want Arendelle so badly?”  
Hans let out a dry laugh. He wrenched his sword free, the wood where it had just been sitting darkening with rot. “I don’t.” He told Anna, making her pause in confusion. “I just wanted everything Elsa loved destroyed. The two of you have taken everything from me, you have left me to the mercy of this demon inside of me. Your kingdom is merely a means to an ends for me to fight my curse.” He smiled charmingly at her but his eyes were pure evil. “I don’t want Elsa dead, I want her broken.”  
He pointed the tip of his sword at her and Anna swore the discomfort in the air intensified. “But you…you I want dead.”  
That was all the warning Anna needed. She drew her blade.  
“And I suppose you thought I’d just fall down and take it?” She growled at him, readying her blade in a guard position.  
Hans laughed. “Oh Anna, it was just you. You are no threat to me.” He lazily swung his sword at her.  
Anna rolled to the side faster than she had known herself capable of. His blade missed by feet and she sprang back into her guard position, keeping herself between Hans and Ichtaca.  
Hans raised an eyebrow. “Are you really going to try to fight me, Anna?” He asked, amused.  
“I’m going to kick your sorry butt back to the Southern Isles.” Anna said with far more confidence than she felt.   
Hans actually threw his head back and laughed. That was his first mistake. Anna dashed forward, her blade whistling through the air in a shining blur. The look on Hans’ face when his sword fell from his grasp was the most satisfying thing Anna had seen in months. She fell back into a guard stance, her blade pointed at her opponent’s heart.   
As the blade clanged on the floor, the young Informer made his calculated move. Ichtaca dove for the sword, his small hand wrapping around the hilt…  
But before Anna could celebrate, the boy crumpled to the floor like he’d been struck over the head.  
It all happened so fast that Anna thought he was playing a joke.   
“Ichtaca!” She shouted. The boy didn’t move. His eyes had glazed over, frozen in his final expression: triumph at helping his Princess.  
Her sword trembled in her hands, the point falling away from its target. “No…no…!” He was dead.  
Hans coolly stepped over the body, prying his sword out of the corpses’ grip as if he had merely dropped it. He spun the sword once, paying no heed to the body on the ground. “Nice try Anna, but it was always doomed to fail. None but I, the King of Death can hold this blade.” He said to a shocked Anna.   
He smirked at her in that despicable way he had. “Pity about the boy,” Hans commented, “he seemed particularly attached to you.”  
Anna’s heart was breaking. But as much as it hurt, she couldn’t let herself be distracted by Ichtaca’s noble sacrifice. That was what Hans wanted. He wanted her weak and begging. She turned back to him, hatred burning in her eyes. “You’re a monster.” She snarled at him.  
Hans’ smile curled his lip but did not reach his unreadable eyes. “I was always a monster, Anna.” He told her. “Just like your sister. You could just never look deep enough to see it.”  
He leapt forward, slicing the air by her neck but she was already moving, parrying his blow with a high block and side-rolling to get behind him.  
Anna straightened up, holding her sword in front of her, setting her feet expertly. “I’m not that same little girl who fell for all your tricks before…”   
Hans turned to her, his eyebrows falling low over his eyes. “Apparently not…at least this will be fun…” He was finally taking her seriously it seemed.   
Anna charged, slamming their swords together so hard that Hans stumbled backwards a few steps. But he recovered quickly and attacked her with a vengeance.   
They traded blow for blow, their styles matching perfectly from their royal breeding. Although Anna had far fewer years of practice and experience, she made up for it with her unpredictability and speed. Hans however, was vastly different from her normal opponents.   
He swung at her and she was forced to duck. She’d barely finished her move when his sword was suddenly coming at her low and she scrambled to parry. She caught his blade and held it for a second, trying to catch her breath as he bore down on her. Where the Arendelle guards were precise and refined, Hans was all fury and strength.  
Anna twisted out of the way of a thrust, knocking his far more powerful blows aside with precise blocks and slight twists that just barely put her out of his range. It had been the hardest part of her sword training but one she had mastered nearly flawlessly.   
Enraged that the girl he hated so much was making a mockery of his power, Hans stabbed at her, putting all of his force behind his attack.  
Anna parried and side-stepped, reversing their positions. As Hans stumbled from his desperate attack, she reached out and managed to make a shallow cut across his upper arm.   
Snarling, Hans rounded on her, his eyes briefly flashing white.  
A powerful gust of wind flew through the window and slammed into her. Anna flew backwards, skimming the surface of her father’s desk and landing in a painful heap on the floor. Immediately her arms went to her middle.   
"No…please no…"  
A shadow fell across her. Hans loomed above her, his sword held aloft. Her own sword lay several feet away, useless. She tried to stand but her shaking legs would not cooperate.  
Hans stared her right in the face, without an ounce of smugness or malice or anything she had come to associate with him. Tears pricked the corners of his eyes as he gazed down at her.   
“Finally…” He whispered, his voice shaking. “I’ll be free.”  
The sword came swinging down. Anna hugged herself and her unborn child tighter. I’m sorry… To whom she was apologizing, she had no idea.  
“What the…?”  
A thick knot of woody plants had sprung up between the two so quickly, Hans’ blade was caught in the center of it.  
Slowly, the where the blade touched the wood, the plants began to rot. But the sword was still stuck fast, it couldn’t come out.  
Thinking quickly, Anna scrambled back from him, putting as much distance between herself and Hans as she could. She only stopped when her back slammed into the far wall of the study. Hans made no move to follow her, he was still staring at the wood, completely dumbfounded.  
“Theo shouldn’t have separated us.” They both whipped around to see who had joined them.  
Scara stepped into the light from the shadows next to the window, green energy glowing softly around her small frame. For a tiny sphere around her, the terror of Hans’ Breath eased. As she came closer, Anna felt relief beginning to creep into her once again. She remembered this girl, the odd, friendly one from earlier this week who had rescued Elsa from the assassin. Something about her presence made all of Anna’s fears settle and some of her pain fade away. Scara smiled brightly at Hans, as if they had just happened upon each other in the market. She ignored Anna entirely. “We need to have a little chat…brother.”  
At that exact moment, the door to the passageway by the bookcase wriggled and burst open, spilling Kristoff and Dagrun into the room.  
“Princess! I found Kristoff!” Dagrun called, completely oblivious to the scene around him.   
Anna was too overwhelmed to say anything or even move.   
Kristoff barely spared Hans a glare before he rushed to his wife’s side. He barely blinked at the soft green light surrounding Scara’s small form. “Anna…” He gathered her up in his arms, holding her tightly. “I’m sorry…I’m so sorry, are you alright?”  
Anna fell into his strong embrace, relishing in his warmth and protection. But she only had eyes for Dagrun in that moment. The little spy had finally seen the corpse on the floor.  
“Ichtaca?” He called, stepping closer. “Brother? Ichtaca, it’s unprofessional to sleep on th’ job…”  
Everybody in the room stopped cold and although Scara and Hans never looked away from each other, Anna knew they were listening.   
“Ichtaca?...Maron?...come on, this ain’t funny…” Dagrun dropped down next to the body, prodding it impatiently with his finger. For several seconds, everything was silent, listening for the sound of wayward breath from the corpse.   
None came.  
“No…no…” Desperate now, Dagrun kicked at the limp form, succeeding only in causing it to roll over slightly, revealing the empty eyes.  
“NO!”   
Anna wasn’t even aware of moving, she suddenly found herself taking the young spy in her arms, holding him tightly as he cried and screamed and pounded his little fists against her. He had lost the only family he had. Anna knew all too well what that felt like.  
Kristoff turned to Hans, his fists clenched tightly. “Why are you here?” He seethed.   
Hans’ gaze shifted briefly, flicking from Anna, sprawled prone on the floor with a sobbing child, to Scara who stood patiently watching him and then to Kristoff, who looked ready to tackle him.   
“I…I…” For once, the eloquent prince could not seem to come up with an answer.  
“Where’s Elsa?” Kristoff demanded, taking a threatening step closer.   
Hans’ eyes flared in response to the name. “She’s far away.” He spat at the ice man. “Too far away to help you...”  
“Not quite.” Everyone turned to face Scara as she spoke. The green light around her pulsated and coiled in the thick air, smelling of pollen. He voice was calm and compelling, commanding them to listen. “Elsa’s the one who brought me here.” Scara said, more to Hans than anyone else. “She was concerned about your plans for her kingdom and her sister.”  
Kristoff nodded in agreement. “It’s snowing outside,” He informed them. “almost as bad as the Great Freeze.”  
Anna stiffened at that. “Kristoff…” He turned to her, all anger draining from his face. Raising her head from her embrace of the sobbing boy, Anna looked at her husband in desperation. “Elsa needs me.”   
Kristoff only nodded. “Let’s go then, maybe we can stop her before the fjord freezes over again.” He pulled Anna to her feet, Dagrun still clinging limply to her and crying for his brother. Holding Anna tight against him (she was trembling and seemed to be having trouble putting weight on her feet), Kristoff supported the others and tried to coax them back towards the passageway door.  
Hans had been watching his blade carefully, waiting for just the right moment when the rot had spread enough through the wood that surrounded it. At that moment, he deemed it weak enough. With a roar, he ripped the blade free, spraying chunks of half-decayed wood across the room and swung his blade blindly at the trio.   
Reacting fast, Kristoff threw himself in front of Anna and Dagrun, not thinking about the consequences. The blade sliced across his outstretched arm, opening up a small cut. Anna screamed.  
Hans finished his stroke, the momentum carrying the sword down into the floor, where it stuck in the wood panels. A vine immediately snapped to life from the cracks in the floor and circled around his wrists and middle, throwing him back against the wall and leaving his blade stuck in the floor. Where the vines touched his skin, they died and hardened into thick bonds.  
“Stop that.” Scara said as Kristoff stumbled back from Hans, clutching his bleeding arm. “what good did that do?” She reached out and brushed a finger along Kristoff’s arm. Her warm golden-green light swirled through the air, briefly taking the shape of a beautiful golden flower and his cut sealed back up. But fatigue as he had never known washed over him. He stumbled and leaned heavily on Anna.  
Weakened herself, she nearly buckled under his weight. “Kristoff!” She struggled to hold him upright. “Kristoff, are you alright?”  
Kristoff fumbled with his feet, fighting to stay up. “Fine…fine…” But his head was spinning, his legs weak. “Let’s go.”  
Anna looked shocked. “No, but you… you!” A ripple of pain went through her belly and she stumbled. Dagrun grabbed her hand to hold her up.   
“M…miss Anna?”  
Shaking and white-faced, Kristoff put his arm around his wife. “I’m taking you to your sister, Anna.” He said in a voice she couldn’t have argued with if she tried.   
“Go.”   
The three of them turned to Scara. Her light shone brighter than ever, casting a sickly green color over Hans’ face as he struggled in his bonds. “Go to your sister, Anna.” Scara told the princess, her green eyes blazing into Anna’s teal ones. “She needs you.” The girl turned to Kristoff, her expression darkening slightly. “Preserve your light, brave one. Fight the curse.”  
Anna and Kristoff exchanged a quick glance, then, with a nod to Scara, stumbled off towards the passageway.   
They left behind a scarily calm Scara and a terrified Hans.  
The descent was rougher than Anna remembered. Then again, she hadn’t been down here in months and she’d never done this route without a light. Or while injured.   
The pain in her stomach only got worse as they descended and Anna had to push worries about her baby out of her head to focus on the current task: Find Elsa. Help her.   
Kristoff was not much better off than she was. Although he never stopped and pushed stoically onwards, Anna could feel him trembling with each step. He leaned heavily on her, even though he was clearly trying to take as much weight off of her as he could.   
His labored breaths terrified Anna. What had Hans done to him?  
Dagrun was their saving grace. Silent but sure, he guided them purposefully ahead, supporting them when they slipped and keeping them moving quickly despite the circumstances. He had walked this path many times, he knew it well.   
Within a few minutes, the light shone at the exit of the passageway. The three of them spilled into the courtyard beyond the palace gates, blinking in the sudden onslaught of snow and sand.   
“Oh Gods…” Anna felt a biting wind on her cheek, followed unnaturally quickly by a blast of heat. She turned into the storm, trying to sense her sister among the icy winds. “Elsa…we’re coming…”  
Quiet but determined, Kristoff pulled her closer, sharing his warm and protection from the elements. Anna curled into him, grateful. It was both a promise and a reminder to her. This time, they would face the storm together.   
Anna turned, finding that Dagrun was no longer beside them but walking off in another direction.  
“Dagrun?” She called, concerned.  
The boy paused, turning back slightly. “I have ta go, miss…” He said, matter-of-factly. “The people need me an’…an’ Maron…Ichtaca would have wanted me ta…ta do what I promised ya.” His tears had dried into dirty streaks on his face. His usually joyful and mischievous expression had vanished, replaced by a stoic, determined gaze that made him look far too old. Anna’s heart twisted. She knew he was strong. But the trauma of losing his big brother had already taken its toll on him. He would never be the same again.  
“Thank you Dagrun…” She said to him, squinting her eyes against the weather. “for everything. And…I’m sorry…”  
Her first Informer gave her a small nod, then turned and vanished into the storm, heading off to fulfill his promise to both Arendelle and his brother.   
Alone, Anna and Kristoff examined the tumultuous weather around them. Everything seemed to be made up of random swirls and eddies of opposites but if you stared at it long enough, a slight pattern began to emerge. The winds were all curling in the same direction, left to right. And they all seemed to be moving quickly away from a location a few streets away from the palace, close to the wall.   
“We have to get over there.” Anna decided.   
Kristoff nodded, trying to shift his weight off of his wife but failing.   
The two of them recovered slowly, the cold not helping their battle and the helpful heat seeming to grow fainter. Kristoff peered ahead of them, trying to find a shortcut. “It’s going to take us forever…” He was cut off by a triumphant braying noise. An ungainly mess of hooves and fur tumbled out of the storm and moaned triumphantly in their faces.  
Kristoff smiled. “Sven! Atta’ boy, buddy!”  
***  
Hans was scared. Genuinely scared.   
Scara smiled at him. It wasn’t her usual child-like grin but rather, a smile that seemed so much older and pierced him so much deeper. It unsettled him, he couldn’t be around her. He shouldn’t be around her. He squirmed. What was she planning to do?  
“I had wondered what Theo meant when she said she was going to help you.” She said calmly, stepping just a little closer to where he was restrained. “I never could have imagined this was her method for calming you down.”  
Hans struggled and pulled but he was going nowhere. His own gift had rendered the attack a trap. “Calming me down?” He snapped at her, sounding hysterical. “That’s what you think this is?” The vines weren’t rotting, for whatever reason, they remained thick, sturdy wood that he could not weaken or break. Of all the times his power chose not to manifest itself…“I came here to get what was mine, to right the wrongs that have been done to me.” Hans snarled, feeling like an animal.  
Scara just watched him and that only fed his terror.  
“I know Arendelle is the place…” He shouted, his voice cracking. “the place where a spirit can be killed. The place where the power lies to steal a spirit’s gifts. It is the place where the Guardian’s powers were first passed to a human. There are magic in these stones!” It was his last hope for a cure, his last chance to slay the monster within him and gain control over his powers.   
Scara blinked slowly, listening to him take several ragged breaths. “Is that really what you believe about this place?” She asked softly, sadly.   
Hans let out a bark of laughter. “How else could Elsa have her powers without a demon inside of her?” He asked Scara. “How else could I have summoned my blade for the first time in these very walls? There is magic here, a deep, terrible, dark magic that this thing inside of me recoils from…it must be the way to stop her!”  
The green light around the Spring host snapped and flared but she seemed unaffected. “Is that the treasure that you seek? The power to control your spirit?” Her voice was even, almost curious.  
“I seek only my freedom!” Hans roared at her. “I seek only what I deserve! The opportunity and tools to rid myself of this curse upon me!”  
Scara blinked again, examining him. “Why are you trying to destroy her?” She murmured, more to herself than to Hans.  
Hans tugged violently on the wood, hearing a creak but not a crack. “I killed my own mother because of this thing inside me.” He sobbed, his heart clenching painfully in his chest. “She murdered my father in a fit of rage. My brother is dead because of her!” Was that not obvious? This demon screaming inside his head had taken everything from him, alienating him from his family, and driving him to desperate, mad acts to keep some kind of fragile grip on his sanity.  
The Spring host listened to his quiet sobs for several seconds, letting him start to compose himself again. “I was talking about Elsa.” Scara said quietly.  
Hans froze, stunned at her change of subject. “She…she was the cause of it all…” He breathed, fumbling for the right words. “I was…before her, I was in control, coping. Until I learned her secret, that she was like me too. I tried to learn from her, I tried to help her but eventually I realized she was trapped too. So I tried to set her free, I tried to kill the demon within her. But I was stopped…by Anna…and I returned to my brothers in shame…to be ridiculed, harassed…tormented…until this…thing inside me could take no more and it lashed out.”  
As he said all this out loud, it suddenly seemed less certain. Like an excuse instead of a valid reason. He shook his head violently, ignoring the spirit’s cries in his head. This was what he had to do. This was the only way.  
“Elsa and Anna are to blame for this pain I feel, this torment that circles me everyday.” He said bitterly. “I have to make them pay…make them suffer. And then I’m going to harness that dormant magic here in Arendelle’s stones of old and use it to be free…”  
“You cant.”   
Scara’s blunt statement caught him off guard. He was so used to her just hearing him out that he’d never expected her to interrupt him.   
The wind around Scara seemed to be pausing, bending around her until she was encased in a transparent shell. “That magic you speak of…” she began, sounding like the spirit inside of her. “the one you say you sense…it isn’t power…it’s Loneliness. Elsa has carried it with her, her entire life in this place, believing that she is alone, that she is a monster who had to be locked up, much the same way Isen did in her childhood. It has seeped into these stones and filled this entire land with its sheer volume. A deep, aching hurt that only we can feel, that keeps everything else at bay. Død was the one who first banished the Lonely from Isen…she responds to it.”  
Scara closed her eyes briefly, as if she too could feel the power Hans spoke of but for her, it was unbearably sad. “But you can see it lifting.” She continued, her voice picking up slightly. “Even though the shadows remain, Elsa has started to free herself from the Lonely. She no longer feels alone, she has let others into her life and pushed out those feelings. There is a bright fire in her life chasing back that shadow…   
She paused, as if contemplating a deeper meaning in her metaphor. But after a moment, she continued. “It is not a power, it is merely the imprint of Isen’s power. Of the strength of her emotions that she has kept locked away for too long. The fading echo of her past that she has worked so hard to overcome.”   
Scara glanced down at her hands, the green light pulsing around them deepening to a thick forest shade.   
“We have all suffered from this burden.” She said. “Do you think I have not? I lost my family when I was very young, I missed my chances to meet other people, to explore the world, to fall in love, and have a family of my own.” She closed her hands into loose fists. “I feel every life on the planet, every time a blade of grass withers in the heat, or a wolf kills his next meal, I feel it. Every time a seed sprouts or a baby cries for the first time, I know.” She closed her eyes and tilted her head back. “It is overwhelming, the things in my head…” Her eyes opened and she gazed at him, her expression unreadable. “But I have learned to cope with it. I have attained my own form of control.”  
Hans didn’t know what to say. He wanted to comfort her and shout at her at the same time. How dare she take his last hope from him? How dare she tell him a story so profoundly sad? “So why?” He finally asked. “Why am I this way?” He shuffled in his restraints as if to accentuate his point. “Why do I continue to suffer while you all seem to flourish?”  
“That,” Scara said, her gaze darkening. “is my fault.”  
Hans was silent, shocked at her blunt answer.   
The Spring host turned from him and crossed the room to the desk. Scara swirled her fingers in the remaining dust that had once been the toad lily, the muscles in her back tight and stiff. The pile of dust sparkled briefly with her green light but could not return to its former state. It turned to pollen in her hands and circled her slowly. “Since the day we awakened, we have had a shared existence.” She said to Hans, her voice sounding ancient. “Life and Death. Two sides of the same coin. One face to the dark, the other to the light. One cannot exist without the other. And when separated, we both suffer, although in different ways. We become unstable and while one may flourish, the other falls.” She turned to face him again, the pollen following her movement. Slowly, she crossed the room, drawing closer and closer to him, not stopping.   
“The entirety of our existence, you’ve been in the dark. You’ve been Lonely and suffered for both of us, taking on the burden of the unstable twin, your circumstances drawing misery towards you.” Scara said mournfully. She was so close now he could feel her breath on his cheek. “Now it’s my turn.” Scara whispered.   
His fear spiked. “Don’t touch me, you know what’ll happen!” He cried, trying vainly to pull away from her.   
Scara just smiled and stretched out a hand. Tiny grains of pollen tickled his face, grating against his stubble.   
“Then change it.”   
He tried, but there was no avoiding it. He simply could not move enough to stop her. Her finger just barely brushed his taut jawline, drawing a thin, warm line like the caress of a feather. He wanted nothing more than to lean into the touch. But then Scara dropped to the floor, unmoving. Not breathing.   
Dead.  
The pollen fell out of suspension and was whisked away out the open window.  
***  
/“I’m not leaving you out here alone with them.” Anna said stubbornly, her voice thick with tears.   
Elsa risked a glance back. She wished she hadn’t. “Yes, you are.” Anna’s face, broken by the abandonment, her eyes swimming in tears, plastered itself to Elsa’s heart. That look would never leave her for as long as she lived.   
Resigned to that burden, Elsa left her sister behind, frozen to the tree and walked back through the forest. Anna did not call after her./  
The last words I had ever said to Anna…  
The exact same as the last time she died for me.  
The storm raged within me, filling every particle of my being, spilling out of every pore and multiplying until it was many times my size. My fragile human form could not contain the full strength of Winter in its entirety. This was all I was, it was all I was capable of feeling now that she was gone.  
So this was what true pain felt like. This was Sorrow.  
***  
Theo watched in horror as Elsa’s eyes began to shine with an icy blue light. The Queen’s entire body was rigid, her skin seemed to be glowing in the half-light cast by the flames and snow around her. Her face was blank, devoid of any emotion except perhaps rage, which flowed from her eyes. The very air around her trembled and an icy gust of wind slowly lifted her up into the air. She hovered several feet from the ground on a furious icy tornado, her entire frame shaking with the power it contained. Ice spread from her at a frightening rate, climbing over everything, cold snaking into the water and solidifying it instantly. Stones cracked under the terrifying grip of the ice, wood shattered in the stillness of the cold.   
The only place it didn’t touch was in a small radius around Theo’s collapsed form.  
“What is happening?” Theo shouted, fear crawling into her insides.  
This is Isen’s Sorrow. She is too consumed with emotion, Isen’s power is unraveling.  
Branna paused and Theo felt mutual terror rise from the pit of her stomach to engulf her entire body. Actual terror, not manifested heat. They had separated again, enough to speak to each other. And they were not rejoining.   
Branna suddenly spasmed, crying out in unspeakable pain. Half a second later, Theo felt the same pain rip through her. Like her heart had stopped beating and her lungs had filled with knives.   
And Livet is freed!  
Theo glanced up at the sky. An enormous cloud of pollen was drifting from a window of the castle, rapidly scattering to the winds.   
Her heart stopped. “Scara…” What had the Spring host done?  
The leaves tumbled everywhere, the Breath intensifying until Theo felt it push at her own defenses. Without Livet to counter it, it was spreading unchecked. Elsa’s cold would only slow it, not contain it. Theo tried to stand but her knees gave out before she’d even risen halfway and she collapsed in a heap on her sand once again.  
“Anna…” She struggled to sit up. “Isn’t…isn’t Anna dead? Why…why didn’t it work?” After all this time, all this planning and pain…had killing Anna not been enough?  
Branna was still panicking, trying to do something but they were not strong enough to produce any heat.   
Scara must have got to Hans before he killed Anna.   
“No…no, Scara…” How had it come to this? Hadn’t she done everything she could to keep this from happening?  
Branna howled into Theo’s head, pushing all her thoughts out of the way so that her desperation was all the host could hear.   
Life is dying! Oh sister! NO!  
Theo looked up again, seeing the pollen beginning to fall slowly, dissipating into grains too fine too see. This wasn’t right….  
She has been torn from her host! Suffocated by the Breath!  
No. Theo’s vision went blurry. Not Scara…not her too. Not the vibrant, innocent little girl who had always counted on her. She had promised…always…she’d be a good big sister this time, she’d protect her…  
A crackling sound drew her attention back to the square. Icy whips of wind were curling around the Queen’s body, spreading out from her like ripples. Her skin had taken on a bluish hue and ice was beginning to form at her fingertips.   
Theo’s heart clenched. “Elsa…” She tried to stand again but her knees betrayed her. “No…” She knew what Elsa needed. She needed her, she needed the heat that quelled the icy storm…  
She started to crawl forward but ended up face-first in the snow, all her limbs useless and rubbery. She gritted her teeth.  
Why wasn’t she strong enough to get to her? Why couldn’t she save any of them?  
There is a way to stop her.  
Her head snapped up at Branna’s words. “Then why haven’t we done it yet?” She shouted, struggling to push her face up and get a foot supporting her.  
Branna was silent.  
“Branna!” Theo barked, pushing herself back upright. “Whatever it is, do it!”  
The voice in her head was gentle for once, like a soft glowing light in the dark: You really would do anything to save us, wouldn’t you Theo?  
What did it matter? Everything was already gone for her. At least this could salvage some of the world. “Do it!” Theo screamed.   
Branna paused, sending a brief flush of something through her host. Theo stopped struggling. Was that…regret?  
Goodbye Theonia…thank you. And…I’m sorry.  
Too late, Theonia realized just what confining Isen would entail. “Branna? Branna! NO!” she screamed but it was impossible for her to prevent. It may have been her body but the summer spirit could leave it as easily as stepping through an open door.  
Her body snapped upright, her arms thrown out at her sides as the enormous cloud of smoke spilled from her lips, her fingers, her eyes. The force of the spirit leaving her made her entire body go rigid, suspended by some kind of higher power.   
The heat vanished from her. Her skin felt clammy as it remembered how cold felt, her heart seemed to stop beating as the fire within it died. All the pain she had endured in the past few months while Branna tried to force her to kill Anna was miniscule compared to this. She screamed her throat raw as the endless pain battered at every fiber of her being. Every emotion possible smashed back into her from whatever corner of her mind had been repressing it. Her very soul, bonded as it had been from birth to the child of the Light Goddess was split in two, shredded and locked in Elsa’s icy stillness. Even if she could move, she could not be put back together. If, by some miracle she ever were, she would never be the same.  
Truly, she must be dying.  
She deserved it.  
All the same, fear gripped her as her vision began to fade. A final prayer leapt from her scorched lips, Howled into the icy winds.  
“Great Mother, have mercy on me…”  
As her world went black, the soothing voice of the Mother came to her one last time and whispered her Final Command.   
All around her, Isen’s Song drifted on the cold winter winds.   
***  
There was only the cold. My skin. The calling of the Lonely. It had returned to me once again after all these years.   
For so long I had lived in it, fought it, detested it. But in the end, it was always all that remained. The only certainty in my long life. Loneliness was not something I could ever defeat. It was just something I held back until it asserted itself over me once more.   
Only this time, it had taken the most precious price for its return.   
Anna.  
"Elsa…"  
Far away…on the wind there was a voice calling to me. What did it matter? My sister was gone…I was alone…the Lonely was back…nothing could chase it away this time…  
"ELSA!"  
Heat smashed into me and engulfed me, trying to pierce the cold with tiny flames and hot breaths of smoke. It was all terribly familiar, almost comforting, this constant clash. Thick smoke swirled around me, blotting out my sight. And deep within the smoke, there were two glowing red coals of eyes. And a voice…  
“…Branna?”  
Her entirety surrounded me, embraced me lovingly, murmuring softly to me as she searched me for weaknesses.   
"Oh Isen…We must end this, my love…I must take you with me. We shall both be lost to this world, as we were once before to our home realm. But we will finally be together again. And the humans will be safe…the balance will be restored when Death kills Hans."  
My voice was clear when I replied.   
“But why are you telling me this?”  
Branna paused, confused and redoubled her searching, prodding me all over as if trying to find a way to rip a shell off of me.  
"I am not telling you, Elsa…"  
She was impatient now. Impatient and scared.   
"I am telling my sister, my lover! My Isen…"  
“But… It’s just me…”  
Just me and the Lonely…  
I gazed into the smoke as her fingers searched me, watching the curls twist themselves into shapes, then faces, then scenes of long ago:  
/Summer descended on the winds, whispering in her ear as she gathered her in her arms.   
“I am back my love…I am still alive. Dry those tears…stop your Sorrow. I will never leave you again.”   
Her sadness faded as the warmth slowly penetrated her. The cold, still air began to warm. Ice began to sweat, then crack as heat snaked through it. Sand danced on the moving breeze.   
A soft exhale in her ear, steam curling around them both…  
“We’re a matching pair…I Thaw your storm…”/  
The scene faded, only to be immediately replaced by another one:  
/The two girls fell together, rolling down the long hill. The first one conjured snow to soften the motion, the second melted it to leave no trace. They tumbled to a heap at the bottom, laughing and tickling one another as steam rose between them.   
The one on the bottom, the one with the white hair and painful blue eyes paused, staring up at her companion. Their gazes locked and their faces moved closer.   
Stubby black hair, ruby-red eyes, arms hard with muscle and a smile that liked to hide itself from the world. This was a face she had seen many times and loved well.   
But even though she looked just like Theo, a different, just as accurate name fell from her lips. “…Erin…”  
Erin her sister, Erin her partner, Erin who made steam with her whenever their lips met… /  
I blinked, hard.  
What is happening? Are these…my memories?  
Everything flew by me in a rush upon Branna’s smoke: half-remembered lives and secrets, unfamiliar faces, and places that I clearly remembered seeing, words too, so many words. Too much for just one lifetime….  
***   
Just when it all became too much to comprehend, everything around her stopped shifting. Elsa blinked in confusion, trying to get her bearings. Branna was gone, Arendelle was gone. She stood alone in a dark, empty space, floating in oblivion. Except for one thing. The slab of paper-thin ice was before her once again, she could see the painfully clear emotions reflected in her eyes through the ice.   
A thick white braid, piercing ice blue eyes, pale skin dotted with nearly invisible freckles. Her own reflection smiled at her, familiar and recognizable. It had a different name as well.   
“I made this for you…so that you can See again…take a look…”  
Light spilled into the room, illuminating the space from a single source in a long shaft. The mirror blazed with white light. Elsa’s heart tightened. Ileana had made her such a gift…crafting her ice so finely it revealed truths she herself had never accepted.   
Except…  
It wasn’t just ice. Elsa stared into her own eyes. She had been looking too closely this whole time, gazing inward when she should have just glanced outward.   
She turned around, towards the light source and was confronted with the walls of her ice palace, rearing high above her and glowing gold in the sunlight, the ice reflecting her and only her perfectly. She stared at it, losing track of how long she had been waiting. Days? Months? Centuries?  
How long have I been here?  
Deep within the ice, something blinked once. Twice. Stirred to life, brimming awake with realization.  
Elsa’s breath rushed out between her lips.   
It wasn’t just ice…It was a mirror.  
An endless mirror, forever peering out of her ice, waiting to confront her. And reflected in every possible surface…  
“It’s always been me...only me.”  
As soon as the realization came to her, it all hurtled back to her from that forbidden corner of her mind: The execution of poor little Mirabelle, the choice, the months of painful preparation, the conception and birth, the Mother’s condition: you will not remember your past or who you are…you may recall flashes of memory but only flashes… Your true nature will only be recalled at the moment your sisters need you most…Then you shall know the Truth.  
Her breathing picked up, stirring the heart in her breast. And now she knew. She knew the Truth. The Truth that had always been. The Truth she had always known right from the day she’d created her first snowflake. The Truth that was the reason her meditations had gotten her nowhere. The Truth that the answer had been right in front of her all along, confronting her and taunting her and begging her to See in her own reflection.  
I chose this life. I broke the cycle. I…I am…  
She was reaching out, her fingers brushing the cold, painfully perfect reflective ice of Isen’s Mirror…  
Her Mirror.  
The ice shattered.  
She burst forth from under the ocean and into the cold, thin air.   
With a calm hand, she reached into the burning inferno surrounding her…and gently pressed a restraining hand to the fiery form.  
Branna stilled in shock, the smoke freezing in midair.  
“I was sleeping…but now…I am awake.”  
The words felt different on her tongue. Her voice reverberated deeper, causing the very water molecules in the surrounding air to still and listen.  
The summer spirit recoiled like smoke met with a strong breeze.  
"Isen…? What…how…?"  
“Anna is not the cause of our imbalance.” She could See it now. See just how wrong they had all been, right from the start. “She never was. Anna is my sister. And the human who ties me to this world.”   
Her powers flex within her, joyfully stretching to fill every pore of her being, sliding into place like a perfect second skin. They had always been too strong for a mere human. Too controlled for a host.  
She raised her head to the skies and spoke the Truth towards the Mother’s Realm. “I am Isen.”  
Branna drew a sharp breath as she felt the unmistakable proximity of the soul she had loved so much for so long.  
"Isen… you’re awake…you’re…alive?"  
She stretched out her arms to her blazing sister, gathering the heat close to her once again. Branna pressed herself into her chest, relishing in the familiar cold that she had missed for so long.  
“Come Branna. Let us end this.”  
In the blink of an eye, Isen’s Sorrowful storm stopped, the winds ceasing and the temperature steadying at its current deep freeze. The world was out of balance. But now they knew which way to tip the scale.  
Her icy tornado swelled, carrying them higher, over the rooftops of her earthly kingdom and into the clear air where fragments of pollen still drifted. Branna watched from her embrace, utterly amazed.  
All it took was a single flex of her fingers to grasp the scattered pieces of her younger sister and hold all of them together.  
But all she could do was hold them, she could not breathe life back into the vibrant shell that had held the spirit.  
She cradled her sister’s essence in her arm, preserving Life with her cold.   
Branna cried out in pain.  
"Isen…"  
The winter spirit held her former lover tighter to her as her smoky form began to dissipate as well. She was weak from losing her host, she could not hold on much longer.   
Isen clutched the two expelled spirits to her bosom, desperately holding them here with her even just for a little while longer.   
Branna curled closer to her, touching the remains of Life and beginning to cry.  
"This must be the end for us my sisters…once released, we can never return…"  
“No” Isen said, turning her face to the castle. “There is still one hope left…”  
High above them, leaves drifted through a shattered window.  
***  
As soon as Scara’s body hit the floor, the vines around Hans dissolved into dust. He fell to his knees next to the corpse of the vibrant girl.  
“No…no, not her too…” His hands shook as he tried to reach for her but could not bring himself to touch her again. What else would his curse to do her? Scara, the only one who had never feared him. Hans cried out and slammed his hands onto the wooden floor.  
He hadn’t known her for very long but she had walked into his life and seized it for her own. Not that he minded, he hated his life anyway.   
No one had ever appreciated him. He’d been the runt. The butt of all his brothers’ jokes. Only Christian had ever shown him so much as an ounce of kindness, and even that was always laced with an undercurrent of fear. But Hans had clung to the kindness, seeking that one source of love, no matter how tainted it was. Now he was gone too. Another victim of this curse of death.  
His only talents had been manipulation and hiding his true intentions from the world. Even he had eventually come to realize that there was nothing redeeming about him. That as much as he could pretend to be the charming prince, he would always be a despicable, awful thing. A monster.  
But Scara, Scara had seen something in him. Something that perhaps she saw as good. Her wide-eyed innocence and complete trust of him had turned his perception of himself on its head. No one had ever looked up to him like that. As something other than just a burden or a nightmare.  
Well, no one since Anna but she didn’t count. He’d been lying to her the whole time.   
But Scara…  
He stared down at the corpse, still smiling that last smile. The one that had trusted him to keep her alive. He wanted to touch her again, to hold her close and beg her forgiveness. But he feared her body would only crumble in his grip.  
He sat back on his heels, burying his face in his hands as he sobbed.   
Being with her felt like he was half of a whole, like he didn’t have to leave destruction in his wake, not so long as she was alongside him. He didn’t have to manipulate her, or try to get something out of her. She just was, she just gave him exactly what he needed without him needing to even understand what it was he needed.   
She made him feel…whole.  
“Hans…”  
The voice reverberated through his head, making him flinch. But it was not the voice he feared. It was a voice that was vaguely familiar.   
He raised his head, confusion swirling within him as he tried to place the voice. “Elsa?”  
It was indeed her. She sounded different: older, more powerful. He shivered at the force of her voice.  
“Hans…you have the power to end this…you can make things right again...from Death comes the potential for new Life.”  
Hans flinched. Deep inside, the voice he hated was stirring…  
"Sister…? Isen…? Isen, help!"  
“Shut up!” Hans screamed, clamping his hands down over his ears. One voice in his head was bad enough but now he had to add Elsa to that torture?  
"Isen!! You’re alive! You’re here! Help me my sister!"  
“Enough!” Hans roared, focusing all of his energy on drowning out the voice in his head, on driving it back with angry, malicious thoughts.   
"Sister! Help!"  
Elsa’s voice filled his mind again, sounding like she was pleading with him now. “Hans! You must stop fighting her! Cant you see what it has done?”  
But Hans was through listening. “Get out of my head!” He snarled. “All of you!”   
To his great relief, both of them went silent. But that didn’t mean they were gone. He could still feel them on the edge of his consciousness, waiting.   
"My twin is gone."  
The voice was timid for once, as if extending an olive branch with their shard misery over the dead girl in front of them.  
"You… killed her."  
So much for trying to make peace. “I killed her?” He shouted. “It was you! You kill everyone important to me!”  
"I cant help it…"  
Tears pricked his eyes. “You killed my brother!”  
He felt something akin to sorrow from the voice and paused. Could it actually…?  
"We are caught in an endless war, you and I…Elsa is right, this struggle for power, for dominance is only hurting everyone around us. We must bring it to an end. It’s the only way we can bring her back."  
Hans froze. “Bring…her back?”  
"Life can be reborn…so long as we act quickly."  
Hans glanced down at the body. Scara was smiling…had she known that he could…? His insides felt chilled. Could he really save her?  
"Please…we can save them…save her…"  
He felt the implications in his mind. If they were going to do this, they would have to do it together. And that would mean doing the unthinkable.   
But…Hans stared at the body at his feet, another one of his innumerable victims. If there was even the slightest chance he could take back what he had done…!  
He nodded stiffly. “Do it then…”  
The voice in his head unfurled itself, showing him its true form in its entirety. Død was the color of rich earth, with coppery hair the color of the brightest dead leaves, and deep gray eyes that blazed with the light of oblivion. Tiny mushrooms grew on her knuckles and along her shoulders in bright oranges, pure whites, and inky blacks. Her skin was crinkly, like dead leaves, and her scent always seemed to be changing: rot, burning leaves, spices, warm sunshine…she was a constantly evolving enigma. For his tiny human mind, it hurt to contemplate her.   
But he had to.  
For the first time, Hans opened up his mind, his heart and his soul to the being inside him. Død flexed mightily and a chilly autumn breeze rustled through the room, sweeping away the Breath, carrying with it a scent of decaying leaves and the aroma of spices and burnt cedar. Hans felt his body move by itself, his arms extending, palms outstretched. The power rippled from his hands as it never had before, filling the entire room with a soft golden light, rich like the dying beams of the sun on an autumn’s day, the air charged with the feeling of lightning. The Breath left him, vanishing as if it had never existed, replaced instead with his light. Dead leaves rustled around his form in a tight spiral.   
And suddenly, Hans knew exactly what to do.  
The blade on the floor vanished and reformed in his hand. He pressed his palm against the humming blade, closing his eyes. The power flowed from the cursed blade, a blade he now could feel the entire history of. The blade that had been forged in Hell’s fire and cooled in the waters of Isen’s Sorrow. It had sparked wars in the Mother’s Realm and eventually led to Death’s banishment to this existence. The blade that had taken so many from this world. Surely it could give one back?  
In the new, deepest part of himself that Død had awakened, Autumn reached out, calling to his sisters. Begging. "Please…let me save them."  
Outside, Summer and Winter lifted their heads. Deep within them, their powers had begun to churn. Tendrils of smoke from Branna circled Isen, gathering tiny fragments of ice from her train and grains of pollen from the spring spirit she clutched close to her.   
"All of us are here together…in perfect balance…not a one alone…the Daughters have come."  
Hans felt them. All of them in him and in the air around him, he was Breathing in the smoke and ice and pollen…  
The humming of his blade was growing stronger, the sword was positively vibrating in his hand. With precision he’d never known himself to have, Hans gently lowered the blade and placed just the tip in the center of the dead girl’s forehead.   
It was like setting off a cannon. Pure unharnessed energy exploded from the body that had until recently been the host of Life itself. Golden light with nothing to direct or bind it. Loose upon the world.   
The ripple was so potent, Isen, Død and Branna all shivered from its impact and momentarily forgot everything. The combined power gathered in the sword flowed through them all, merging them until none could be sure who held the blade, who was holding the spirits close, who was lying dead on the floor…  
***  
It took them far too long to make it out of the castle.   
Kristoff was panting and clutching his arm as if it pained him greatly. He’d grown pale from the trip down the secret passageway and leaned heavily onto Sven as they left the grounds to make it towards Elsa.  
Anna was not much better by comparison. She was limping on a slightly twisted ankle and her legs still felt stiff and unmanageable. The sharp pain in her stomach had only gotten worse but she barely felt it through her worry.  
The cold was intense, stronger even than the last time Elsa had frozen the kingdom. It seemed to penetrate them and Anna felt her heart give a fearful shudder at the strength of this weather. Thankfully though, there was no longer a strong wind. The three of them leaned on each other and pushed onward, drawing on strength they hadn’t even been aware that they had.   
They crossed the smoldering shell of the market square, barely pausing to take in the damage. The wind was picking up, a familiar icy chill permeating even through the deep freeze. All three of them perked up slightly at it.  
“We’re close…” Anna muttered and pushed on.  
They rounded the corner, shoes sliding on a strange combination of sand and ice.   
There, twenty feet above the street, suspended mid-air on a cyclone of ice, smoke, pollen and leaves was Queen Elsa. Her black dress was riddled with streaks of the deepest blue, the boldest red, the purest green, and the richest brown. Her skin had turned to pure ice, her eyes glowed a brilliant blue. Her hands were thrown out at her sides: fire gathering in one palm, vines sprouting from the other. A tight circle of dead leaves whirled hypnotically around her head.  
It was terrifying and splendid all at once. Fear coursed through Anna as she took it all in.   
But not fear of it. No, she would never be afraid of her sister. But for the second time in her life, she was afraid for her sister. Elsa was trapped, locked away from her in this vortex of power that she could never fully understand. She needed help.   
Stumbling away from Kristoff and Sven, Anna staggered on unsteady feet towards the cyclone. She didn’t know if Elsa was even still in there, if she could even hear her over the rush of the winds. But she had to try, even if there was no chance. She had to reach Elsa. Just one last time, she had to knock on the door.  
“ELSA!”  
***  
A voice broke through the endless winds, two piercing syllables that commanded all to hear them: “EL-SA!”  
Then a single thought broke into Isen’s empty mind like an icicle piercing her skull.  
Anna…  
It all came rushing back: the childhood she’d had, the years she’d kept her distance and silence, the day that all changed and the months since. The memories rushed through her, pulling her from one to the next like a blizzard. Now she struck her sister on the head, freezing her. Now she leaned against her door trying to muffle her sobs so her sister would not hear them. Now she stood in her ice palace so happy to see her sister but so terrified of hurting her. Now she was on the fjord, holding the forever frozen face of her sister in her palms, her heart shattering. Now she held her sister’s hands, pulling her across the ice. Now they snuggled together on her bed, her sister brushing away her tears.  
Here was her link back to herself.  
The undeniable humanity that had defined her and made her a true part of this world.   
ANNA.  
That humanity that was LIFE.  
The ice on her skin tingled and began to glow with soft blue light. She was Isen. She was the winter, the storm, the Sorrow. And she was human.  
Elsa opened her mouth and began to Sing.   
She Sang of living and growing, of change and balance, of sisters and love and the bond that welded all of these together. Her sisters awoke from their muddled state of being at her song, slowly beginning to separate back into their own selves. Branna Howled in pain as the raw power of the Song set her heart ablaze while Død Breathed quietly to contain her curse, stirring the air into motion. Slowly, each peeled away from the others, reforming and relearning their identity in the Council of the Four Seasons.  
The Mother’s Children reached into the blizzard around them, guided by the voice of the Mother’s eldest, gathering each tiny fragment of pollen meticulously, carefully, Singing and Howling and Breathing until Life began to Dance again.  
Autumn could feel the power flowing into him from the others. It was everything he had ever wanted: full control over the elements, over Life itself! If he broke the connection now, it would be his! He would be a god! He would be…Alone.  
And he let it pass through him, down his cursed blade and into the body on the floor. Golden energy settled into familiar bones and skin, the light fading to yellow, then the green of a freshly sprouted leaf.   
A tremor went through the world.  
Vibrant green eyes snapped open and shot to gray ones.   
Hans felt his heart stop. “Scara…” Her eyes glowed with bright green light as the spirit of Spring entered her once again. Hans felt his own eyes glow warmly in response. Autumn welcoming her twin sister back.   
As the spirits settled and the light faded, Scara smiled as if she had not just been yanked from an untimely demise. “I told you.”  
Hans dropped the Blade, crying out in joy as he gathered the girl in his arms. It was only when he slowly released her some time later that he realized the real significance of what had just happened.  
“My…I touched you and…” He started to back away but the Spring host laid a gentle hand on his arm.   
Scara threaded her fingers through his, their powers snapping and humming through the air but causing no ill effects. Nothing died, nothing sprouted. “You have bonded with Død.” Scara told him, smiling brightly. “And we have been reunited at last. The power is now yours to control.”  
Inside his head, Hans felt the spirit he’d hated for so long settle, sliding into his form completely and fitting him like a second skin. The tortured voice quieted, the pain faded. His curse was gone.   
He fell against Scara, pressing their foreheads together, and wept with relief.   
Finally, he was free.  
***  
I floated upon the winds, exhaustion creeping through my form. Odd that even though I was a spirit, my body still tires like a human’s…  
"That’s because you are human…"  
I struggled to keep my eyes open. “Branna…sister…”  
My sister’s form was still clenched tightly to me, her smoky form twisting and writhing, unable to return to a complete shape, unable to move on.  
A face flashed across my fading consciousness. Black hair…and red eyes… “Sister, your host…”  
"I fear…I cannot…"  
Her words were heavy with regret and sadness. My human heart tightened painfully, feeling the loss all too much. Another host lost…another life sacrificed. One I had come to know and cherish so much. I held her closer but she was starting to fade.   
"Isen…it is the solstice… I am weak but it is the perfect time for me to manifest…Is there…? Could… can…can you?"  
I heard her unusual request in the silence between her words. I pressed a soft kiss to the smoke, a tiny curl of steam rising between us. “Always, my love.”  
***  
After what seemed like forever, Elsa slowly began to drift back towards the ground. The winds around her quieted and the skies above her cleared, the northern lights shining in brilliant ice-blue shades against the cold stars. Anna and Kristoff watched with jaws agape as the Queen descended to the street just in front of them, her bare feet settling all too quietly on the stones. Her skin thickened, the ice becoming soft and pale and fleshly once again, dotted with nearly invisible freckles. Slowly, the blue light in her eyes faded until she stood before them once again as the Elsa they knew: proud, regal and delicately beautiful.   
Then she swayed and Anna darted forward to catch her.   
“Elsa!” The two of them fell onto the street, Anna barely able to support the limp form of her sister. “Elsa no…no, wake up!”  
Kristoff watched them, his worst fears creeping forward as seconds passed and Elsa did not open her eyes. He hadn’t even noticed that the wound on his arm had vanished and he no longer felt like his life was fading from him. Sven moaned sadly, huffing.  
Anna squeezed her sister tightly, burying her face in her sister’s neck. “Elsa…” She sobbed. “No…please…” There was an uncomfortable warmth in her belly, like an angry fire smoldering itself slowly out on her insides. Was this what Elsa had felt when she had thought Anna dead?  
The body stirred, making the princess freeze. A slight tremor went through Elsa’s still form, seeming to be slowly waking up every muscle and tendon one by one. The tremor passed into Anna and she felt her own muscles respond in sympathy with a tiny shake of their own. Anna lifted her head, watching her sister intensely as if she believed that if she looked away, Elsa would really, truly be gone. Finally, after several agonizing seconds, ice-blue eyes flickered open. The first thing they settled on was her. “…Anna…”  
Tears streaming down her face, Anna stared at her sister. In Elsa’s eyes was an apology, a plea for Anna to forgive her for everything: abandoning her in the woods, keeping her in the dark, leaving her alone, not returning sooner, scaring her…  
Anna would have forgiven her even without that look. She would forgive her anything.   
With a cry, Anna wrapped her arms tightly around Elsa, crying unabashedly into her sister’s shoulder. “Oh, Elsa…!” Elsa closed her eyes again and pressed her nose into Anna’s hair, making gentle soothing noises. Kristoff and Sven watched, both of them blinking back tears.   
It was some time for anyone moved again. Anna suddenly sat back, staring at her sister in amazement. “Are you…? I mean you were just…you were flying, Elsa…”  
Elsa lowered her gaze, looking at her hands. “It’s okay Anna, I have it under control now.” She slowly closed her fingers, watching the tiny snowflakes that danced around her hands. “I finally know who I am….” Elsa said quietly.  
Anna shook her head in amazement. “But…what was that…who…what...?”  
Her sister was quiet for a long moment. She seemed to be trying to decide what to say. Briefly, she glanced in Kristoff’s direction. He could offer her nothing but an encouraging smile.  
The white-haired women with blue eyes and the power of Winter shakily pushed herself to her knees, then to her feet. She swayed slightly as she stood on her own. “I am Isen, the spirit of Winter.” She finally said. Her voice was powerful and ancient, raspy with the new Song it had just sung. Her eyes were centuries old and filled with memories of other lifetimes. Isen turned her head and blinked and the sister Anna knew returned instantaneously. She smiled warmly, the action lighting up her young, beautiful face. “But I am also Elsa, your sister and the Queen of Arendelle.”  
And she was.


	18. Epilogue: A New Order

She breathed softly, feeling the air around her sharpen with her cold. It sang along her skin and sank deep within her, to the deepest recesses of her mind that she had even now only just begun to explore.   
Scenes and memories pounced on her from the darkness behind her closed eyes but she ignored them. She was searching for just one place in the chaos.  
On and on the memories pounded, trying to distract her:  
Ice raced across the mountaintop, freezing the summit…  
The ocean pounded against the shore and she curled up on the sand, crying…  
The fire was being lit…she was going to burn…  
Branna gently took her hand, her outline blurry. “Come with me my love, I will write the things you See…”  
When she finally found her ice palace among the torrent of thoughts, it was like finding a rock to cling to in a raging river. Elsa eagerly entered and the thrum outside quieted. For a few blissful moments, her mind was silent and empty. Crossing the entry chamber, she approached the base of the staircase, where a new door had been added in her memory.   
Inside the room was Isen’s Mirror.   
Reflected in it was the storm outside in all its confusing, jumbled glory.  
She stood in front of her mirror again, watching these memories through the ice. After countless trials and hasty retreats from her own mind, she had found this way to be most effective for controlling the onslaught of new information her brain seemed to remember every day since she had discovered her identity.  
Standing here, in this defined spot inside her mind that had such significance both in her immortal and human lives, she could sort through the memories and find new places for them, cherish old thoughts that had been lost to her when she became human, and (most importantly) she could manage herself without forgetting herself.   
A particularly strong memory appeared in the mirror, capturing her attention:   
A voice that was all at once soft and thunderous, gentle and angry…“My Daughters…all of you, together…you shall all be sent to the World Below. There, you shall live with the humans and learn what I could not teach you…until the time comes that you can return…”  
Isen blinked hard to break from that memory and nudged it towards the room of her mental palace that contained memories from her life before this world. Elsa took another deep breath and relaxed her physical body.  
Inside her mind, the memory sorting continued.   
Daily mediations had become necessary for her. After a night filled with endless memories from the endless lives she could now recall, focusing on her human life became impossible without taking a few minutes to quietly sort out her thoughts. So every morning, before dawn she would come down to the throne room, sit quietly and make her way to the mental image of her ice palace in her mind to begin sorting through the new batch of memories. Host after host had offered up their memories, all 115 generations clamoring to tell her stories and recount old exploits in the days they had shared her power. On top of that, her ancient memories occasionally cracked through the rush like a flash of light, momentarily disorienting her as she saw the Mother’s Realm again.  
The Mirror had simply appeared there on her first journey into her mind. As if it knew that she was going to need it. As if Ileana herself had reached out from beyond the years, smiling in that intelligent, caring way she had always possessed…  
The surface of the Mirror rippled and Elsa refocused her attention on it. Something was swirling within. Something that was definitely not one of her memories.   
Occasionally, she would see things in the Mirror. Not seeing but Seeing. A place that was not in her memory or a memory that was not her own. While her memories all had a certain texture to them, like snow or ice, her visions were always more foggy and less solid, like a slurry or slush.   
This could only be one of those. She watched through the glass, careful not to blink and shatter the illusion.  
***  
Three children walked along a forest floor. The oldest of the three, a boy with tightly curled black hair, carried a young blonde girl on his back. Beside him, a young girl with short black hair walked stiffly, keeping her fists closed tight and her hands away from any vegetation.  
“Theo?” The blonde asked sleepily, her head lolling on the boy’s back.  
“Yes?” The young girl replied tersely.  
The blonde yawned widely. “What’s a ridge?”  
The boy glanced over his shoulder at his sleepy bundle. “A ridge?” He asked her, smiling.  
She nodded into his back. “Livet says it’s just over that ridge.”  
Theo looked at her oddly. “Livet?”  
“The voice in my head. That’s her name.”  
“You named her?”  
Scara nodded. “She told me her name, just like she told me the name of the voice in your head.” She grinned. “Her name is Branna!”  
Theo twitched but stayed silent.  
“Did she say anything about me?” The boy asked anxiously.  
Scara thought for a moment, blinking heavily. “She just said you were our Guardian.”  
Garret shifted her slightly, becoming lost in his thoughts. “Your Guardian…”  
The three of them crested the ridge and stopped. Before them lay an enormous stone building, rearing high into the sky. The thick wooden doors were thrown wide open, inviting them in.  
“This is the place…” Garret said quietly, gently placing Scara down.  
A strong, hot wind began to circle them. Theo drew in a deep breath, her skin starting to glow red with heat. Deep inside her, the voice in her head began to stir. Something settled around her shoulders like a scarf, a soft compelling voice that was ancient and familiar.  
The Mother whispered gently in her ear.   
Tears pricked at blazing red eyes. “This is our new home…” Theo said.  
***  
Isen reached out a hand and stroked at the glass, her heart twisting in a way it never had before. The vision faded and her mind quieted. She had seen enough and her thoughts had cleared significantly. Elsa softly began to draw herself out of her inner mind and return to her body.   
Blinking several times, she opened her eyes, delighted to see a snowscape coating the floors of the throne room. The ground had iced over and snowdrifts as high as her chin had settled into soft mounds. She’d have to tell Dagrun. He and some of his Informer friends had really enjoyed the last time she’d done this.   
She climbed to her feet and gently stretched, rolling out her neck and shoulders as the early morning rays of sunlight shone in through the window and caught the snow.  
“Beautiful…”  
Elsa turned at the voice, not at all surprised to see Reba standing by the door. “Good morning Reba.” Elsa greeted her as she skirted a large pile of snow to reach her side. “Morning Agog.” She greeting the raven perched on the girl’s shoulder. The bird croaked, ruffling its feathers and Reba stroked its breast absently, still admiring the snow.  
The young girl often came to find her several times a day. Elsa didn’t mind but she did wish Reba would stop staring at her snow as if it were a gift from the heavens.   
“You’re getting better at that.” Reba observed. “It used to take you hours to sort through all those memories.”  
Elsa smiled. “Well practice has made it easier I suppose.” It had certainly cleared up her headaches and random snowstorms. “And I’m going to run out of memories eventually, right? Someday?”  
Reba gave her an odd look. “You have over a hundred lifetimes as a host and innumerable years before that as a goddess.” Was all she said, the implications heavy in her words.   
Elsa sagged slightly. “Right…” The girl was often answering her like that these days.   
Since the battle, the seasons had turned: the winter had melted into spring, and eventually warmed into summer once again, nearing the anniversary of Elsa’s coronation. Isen’s power again did not fade as the seasons changed, but now that she was aware of the origin of her colossal strength, Elsa had no problem keeping herself under control. After all, as Reba pointed out, she now had centuries’ worth of memories and knowledge of how her powers worked.   
Reba had become a sort of guide and confidant to Elsa these past few months. It seemed that whenever Elsa had a question about her past or the nature of her being, Reba had an answer. Sometimes it seemed she knew even more than Theo had about the spirits.  
“The Winter Goddess is the oldest of the Mother’s Children.” Reba continued, Agog losing interest in Elsa and gently preening the girl’s hair. “She’s the heir to the Mother’s Realm.” Reba had soaked up the stories Elsa had told her about the temple, effortlessly matching them to legends from her homeland. It was almost like she had always known. “She’s the oldest season and the strongest.”  
“I don’t know about that.” Elsa said quickly. “Scara could probably beat me in a fight. Or Hans…” She glanced down at her hands, feeling the cool blue light that seemed to always be just shimmering under the surface of her skin these days. “My powers are different now.” She admitted. “They still respond to my emotions but it feels…” she flexed her fingers. “Easier somehow. Smoother.” She barely had to think of what she wanted to create anymore. Sometimes it simply popped into being without a concrete thought on her part.   
Raising her hand slightly, Elsa created a flawless ice slide down one of the snowdrifts with no effort whatsoever on her part. Several tiny snowmen sprung to life unintentionally, rolling and climbing through the snow.  
Reba watched, her eyes bright. Agog was less impressed and flapped his wings as if to garner more attention for himself. “You were able to fully master your powers in this world by achieving human form.” Reba reflected, offering Elsa a smile. “You can now summon and dismiss the winter at will because of your mastery of your emotions and your connection to Anna. Having her has made you into what you should have been all along: a god in human form.”   
She made a low sweeping bow, upsetting Agog, who croaked his displeasure as he flapped to stay balanced.   
Elsa was about to demand that Reba stop worshiping her (something that was becoming rather common for the young girl) when the girl abruptly straightened up and spoke again. “Speaking of Anna….”  
Elsa’s gaze tightened. “Yes?”  
“Princess Anna has been requesting you, Your Majesty. I think it’s time.”  
Elsa’s gaze narrowed further. “This isn’t another false alarm?”  
Reba rolled her eyes humorously. “I think we should always assume that…”  
Elsa laughed, her expression lightening. “I think you’ve been spending too much time with Kristoff.” She turned to go but paused before she’d taken a step. Something was stopping her. Something that had been on her mind for a long time.   
“Reba,” she began, but the girl’s attention had never left her anyway. “I… I never got a chance to thank you.” Elsa told her. “Without your warning…I fear everything would have been lost. So truly, thank you.”  
The quiet girl smiled. “It was my duty, my Queen.” She bowed again, less grandly this time, the raven on her shoulder copying the motion.  
With a nod and a grateful smile, Elsa swept out of the room.   
She walked through the hallways of her castle, her steps hurried but not frantic. Anna had had several false alarms over the past few days, most of them faked because she missed Elsa and now had a perfect excuse to make her leave whatever meeting or work she was wrapped up in. Elsa had to admit, her sister had been using this excuse a lot since the Battle. But she could hardly blame her. Some nights, she felt like sleep had just been an illusion and she’d merely daydreamed her dreams while stuck in yet more meetings. There had been so much to do.  
After yet another freak winter and the damage caused by Theo’s fires, Arendelle had been in bad shape. With the real winter fast approaching, it had been a race against time to rebuild, secure food, and take care of the people. For several tense days, it had seemed that Arendelle might be doomed.   
But they had found solutions. With her new sensitivities to the seasons, Elsa had manipulated the temperatures ever so slightly around Arendelle, keeping the deep cold at bay for a few extra days so that everyone could be properly settled before the full winter hit. Her expanded powers had also proved very useful on the physical side of things as Elsa had crafted hundreds of ice huts for those with nowhere else to go, tiny igloos that dotted the charred landscape where she and Theo had fought.   
It turned out the fight had actually done some good in the form of the enormous expanse of pure glass that Theo had left behind on the ground. Teams supervised by Kristoff had carefully sliced and excavated it, saving some for repairs, and sending the majority of it to their trading partners in exchange for much needed supplies.   
Lord Wilfred had resurfaced after the ashes from the fight had cleared and come to Elsa practically on his knees, begging her not to cut ties with North Melonia as she had with Weselton. After he’d finally explained what he meant to the baffled queen (that he had been an accomplice to Prince Christian’s plot and had revealed information that may have, however indirectly, led to the rebellion) Elsa had practically cried at the opportunity being dropped in her lap. The next day, they drew up an extensive compensation contract, where North Melonia would provide enough food and wood to see Arendelle through the winter.   
Lord Wilfred and Prince Leif (who had been thoroughly confused throughout the proceedings) left a few days after that. Their promised supplies arrived two weeks later, just before the first snows began. Arendelle had not only survived. It had thrived.  
Thank the Mother Scara and Hans had been there.   
Elsa reached her own door and gently slipped back inside.  
Anna was stirring, slowly waking up and trying to get out of bed. Elsa paused, watching her silently from the doorway. Anna flailed around helplessly, trying to roll onto her side and continuing to fall flat on her back.  
“Elsaaaaa…..” She moaned as yet another attempt failed.  
Elsa giggled. “I’m here, Anna.”  
Her sister’s head shot up, smiling brightly.  
“Great! Help me up. Please?”  
Elsa rolled her eyes but came to her sister’s aid, helping the younger woman sit up comfortably in bed.   
“Thank you.” Anna moaned, rubbing her side. “That gets harder every day.” She rested her hands on her middle.  
Anna had been growing right in time with the seasons and the huge swelling in her stomach betrayed just how close she was to her due date.   
Anna had been thrilled when she learned that her child would have a birthday similar to Elsa’s. “We can celebrate them together!” She had squealed to her sister as the physician gave Elsa an understanding smile from behind Anna’s back.  
It had certainly come as a relief to everyone that Anna and the baby were fine after everything that happened. Kristoff had actually wept with relief after the physician had cleared Anna (prompting Elsa to quietly remove herself from the scene to give them some much need privacy).   
Elsa had just been happy that Anna was feeling more and more like her old self. Anna had been acting very disarmingly odd during the months before Elsa’s battle, something Elsa now attributed to her sister worrying about her and being frustrated with her for keeping more secrets. But ever since the crisis had been dealt with and another catastrophe narrowly avoided, the princess had cheered right up considerably. Although she was glad her sister had finally recognized her leadership potential, Elsa never wanted the youthful, charmingly awkward Anna to fade away.   
“Good morning.” Elsa greeted Anna, rubbing her shoulder tenderly. “How are you feeling?”  
Anna grimaced. “Awful.” She rubbed her stomach. “This little one didn’t let me sleep at all last night, what with all the kicking and squirming.”  
Elsa smirked. “They’ll be just like their mother then, restless and adventurous.”  
Anna made a half-hearted swat at her arm. “How was the meditation?” She asked, slowly rising to her feet and balancing on unsteady legs.   
Elsa considered her answer carefully. “…Different.” She finally admitted. The Queen crossed from the bed to look out of Anna’s window. Bright summer sunshine glistened over the fjord. “I Saw again.”  
Anna raised an interested eyebrow. “Hmmmm?”  
Elsa nodded, watching the waves on the fjord. “It was a vision of the others…”  
Anna had come to know that ‘the others’ was usually in regard to one particular person. “What was it this time?” She asked softly.   
Elsa gazed out of the window. “The day they found the temple…”  
Anna slowly waddled her way across the floor until she could stand next to Elsa at the window. She placed a gentle hand on her sister’s shoulder.   
“You see so much now…a life I could never imagine…”  
Elsa turned to Anna, fear sending the temperature of the room down a few degrees. “But I’m still me? Right?” She asked, desperate. No matter how many times she asked, it was never easy.  
Anna’s smiled held no room for doubt. She took Elsa’s hands in hers. “Of course.”  
***  
“Elsa…”  
She had turned from the large triangular window in her room, where she’d been silently watching the lights in the sky. Since the battle a few days before, they had seemed softer, slower. Like they were waiting. “Yes?”  
Anna was standing in her doorway, her hands folded over her middle, her face carefully neutral. “We…need to talk.”  
Elsa stepped away from the window, her heart tightening. “I know.”  
It had only been three days since the Battle of the Seasons, as the people were starting to call it. But between resting, healing, resettling the refugees, and imprisoning the rebels, the sisters had had very little time to do more together than fall asleep in each others’ arms each night.  
But they both knew they would need to talk about this. About everything.  
Anna stepped into Elsa’s bedroom, closing the door softly behind her. Elsa had been expecting her to start babbling, but instead, her sister practically ran across the room and threw herself into her arms.   
That was all it took to make Elsa relax. If she was grateful for one thing that had come out of these past few days, it was the fact that her sister treated her no different than she had before the battle.   
Anna held her close, murmuring gently in her ear. “Please…don’t ever scare me like that again.”  
Elsa winced, burying her face in her sister’s hair. “Anna, I’m so sorry.”  
“I don’t want to lose you Elsa…” Anna confessed, tightening her grip. “When you left, that first time I felt like you never completely came back. And then you left again and pushed me away again and I just…!”   
Elsa couldn’t hear any more of this, it was breaking her heart to know how much she’d hurt her sister again. “I’m back, Anna.” She interjected, interrupting her sister’s tirade. Her arms tightened their hold. “I promise. And I don’t think I’ll ever be leaving again.”  
Anna took a deep shuddering breath, as if a great weight had just lifted from her. Then she gazed up at Elsa, her eyes wide. “Are you going to tell me what happened in the street?” She asked softly.   
Elsa felt her heart tighten with fear and the temperature drop slightly. But she pressed on. She would not allow fear to control her again. Slowly, she detangled herself from the embrace and faced the window again. “I did…I’m the winter goddess, Isen…” She began. Every time she said her true name, it felt like a little piece of her past returned, her mind expanding ever so slightly to accommodate it. She winced as a headache began in her right temple.  
“I get that.” Anna said slowly, keeping a good distance between them. “But how are you…here? I mean, what made you become…who you are now?”   
Elsa closed her eyes, feeling the ancient power swirl within her. “I have no idea how I did it,” she admitted. “That part of my memory is blocked off somehow, hidden from me by some higher force. But I somehow discovered something that even the Mother could not do.” Her head pounded, the forbidden memory taunting her from beyond its gate. “I achieved human form…and I cant even remember how!”  
She opened her eyes and turned to face her sister. “Everything is so confusing…” She continued, her voice shaking. “I know I am human…but I remember being a spirit, being a goddess…it’s all too much to fit in my tiny head.” She gripped her eyes as another painful migraine ripped through her, this one carrying visions of her 55th host Kelandry talking to inanimate snowmen…she had been the lonely type, preferring to speak to her and the snow rather than other humans…   
Warm hands took hers and gently pulled them away from her eyes. The memory faded, retreating back into her subconscious and alleviating the pain she was feeling slightly. Anna gently stroked Elsa’s cheek, feeling the flush there. “I think it’s time you told me the secrets you’ve been keeping since the Thaw…” she said gently.   
And so Elsa told her. She told her about the kidnapping, and the temple, and the council, and the spirits, and her meditations, and how everything had been out of balance.   
“So…” Anna finally said, after Elsa had been talking for a long time. Her brow was furrowed in thought, trying to make sense of everything Elsa had told her. “Hans and Scara are also hosts…but who was the last one?”  
Elsa glanced out of the window, ice gathering in her palms. “…the summer host…her name…” she swallowed hard and had to try again. “her name was Theonia.”  
Usually, whenever she thought of a past host, either one of hers or one of the other spirits’, it brought an onslaught of memories from her past lives, her corresponding host yelling out of her subconscious to share facts and stories about her time in this world…  
But thinking about Theo gave her no such twinge. If anything, it quieted all the others down.  
Anna smiled gently at her sister. “What is she like?” She asked, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder.  
“She was…” Elsa struggled to come up with the proper word, and then smiled fondly. “She was strong. So strong. She put up with so much, sacrificed so much, all without ever thinking of herself. And she…” She choked, tears stinging her eyes. “She didn’t deserve her fate…”  
“Her fate?”  
“She’s...” Elsa swallowed hard, trying her hardest to fight back tears. “She’s the one who tried to burn Arendelle…because she thought it would save us all. And now…now she’s gone…”  
Anna’s gentle smile slipped slightly, anger filling her expression as she learned this new fact. But she was intuitive enough to notice the impact thinking about this girl was having on her sister so she did not voice any of her grievances about the identity of Arendelle’s aggressor or her motives.  
The princess touched her sister softly, bringing the queen out of her tortured thoughts. “So why didn’t you tell me all of this?”  
Even though the statement had not been challenging, Elsa whirled around, immediately defensive. Ice dripped from the ceiling and several snowflakes filled the air but the princess ignored them. “Anna…I know I should have told you…”Elsa stuttered, backing away as much as the window would allow. She took a deep breath to compose herself. “But…but I didn’t want you to look at me differently. You have always been the only one who has never seen me as a monster. I didn’t want that to change.”   
Anna waited a moment, seeing if her sister had anything else to add. “And now?” She prompted after several silent seconds.   
Elsa shrugged helplessly. “Now? Now we both know the truth.” She stretched her hands out before her, ice dancing on the whorls of her fingertips. “I am different Anna. So different. I’m a goddess in human form, I possess and control a power that was never meant for this world. But I am your sister. And somehow, that...saved me. Saved us all.  
“But I don’t want this to come between us. If being this way is going to make you look at me differently…if it’s going to change anything…I’ll give it all up, I’ll find some way to get rid of it or…have the trolls remove my memories…” She trailed off, seeing Anna shaking her head increasingly violently as she spoke.  
“Elsa, I could never see you as anything but you.” Anna declared. She surged forwards and captured Elsa’s hands in a tight squeeze. Ice crackled pleasantly along her fingers, melting against her warm skin. “Because that’s who you have always been. And that’s who you will always be to me. Elsa: my big sister, my best friend, my wonderful, magical, amazing Ice Queen.”  
Anna was the only one who could say that title without hurting her.  
Elsa closed her eyes in relief and leaned her head forward. Their foreheads pressed together. “Thank you Anna.” The queen whispered, her powers and her mind quieting for the first time since the Battle.  
Anna grinned up at her. “You have to promise me that there are no more secrets.” She insisted.  
Elsa chuckled. “I promise Anna. You reminded me of who I was at the moment when it mattered most. I’ll never push you away again.”  
Anna was quiet for a moment, fidgeting in the unsettling way that Elsa knew meant she was up to something. Elsa pulled back and raised a questioning eyebrow at her sister.   
“Okay then, please answer me this…” Anna began, looking her sister square in the eye.  
Elsa said nothing, giving Anna freedom to finish her thought.  
“Are you in love with Prince Leif?” Anna burst out suddenly.  
Elsa blinked, confused. “Who?”  
Anna looked at her funny. “The Prince of Melonia? From my wedding party?”  
Elsa was still drawing a blank. With all her new goddess memories, these days it was hard to recall some of her old human ones, except those in which her sister featured.  
She shook her head again and Anna visibly relaxed.   
“Oh good. I was worried…”  
“You were worried that I might be in love…?”  
“Anyway!” Anna said loudly, drowning out Elsa’s reply. “Now we can move on and solve our next problem! Together!”  
Elsa shook her head at her sister’s antics, secretly thrilled that things were moving forward so normally after such a revelation. She took her sister’s hands in hers.   
“I get the feeling our troubles are over.” She told Anna, smiling wider than she had in months. “At least as far as my powers are concerned. I feel in better control, more confident about everything. It all seems so simple now that we know what was causing the imbalance wasn’t a problem but rather, a whole new order.”  
Her sister bit her lip, suddenly unable to meet her gaze. “Well… all our troubles might not be over…”  
Elsa’s gaze narrowed. “Anna?”  
Anna looked at her sideways. “What do we do about Hans?”  
***  
But in the end, they’d had to do very little with Hans.   
After Elsa had found him in her father’s ruined study, he’d seemed like a different person entirely. With his arm around Scara, he’d seemed very calm and controlled, content even. He’d even bowed to her, calling her both “Your Majesty” and “Sister” in turns. As they gathered the people together and arrested the rebels, Hans had assisted without needing to be goaded. He sent the navy ship home, along with all the Southern Isles soldiers who had escaped his curse, telling them only that Arendelle was no longer considered an enemy. The body of Prince Christian was sent home with it.   
After that, he’d stuck by Elsa’s side as several of the rebels hurled insults at her, even going so far as to reprimand a man who had tried to spit in her face. Such a display of loyalty from the man who had started the rebellion was enough to quiet the others and they headed off to prison without another word. Elsa had found that her fight with Theo had convinced a significant portion of the population that she was not only incredibly powerful, but that she had Arendelle’s best intentions at heart and was the only one capable of protecting them in this new, uncertain age of magic and seasons. Several of the rebels had even publically apologized to her before they were arrested. Other villagers had started to hail her as a savior, embellishing the story of her arriving on an icy tornado into her riding in on some kind of icy apparition in the shape of an enormous eagle and striking the fire witch down with a single blast of ice. Elsa had not enjoyed any revelations or gossip about the fight. In fact, she much preferred everyone to stop talking about it.  
As the days went on and Elsa did not perform anymore god-like feats with her powers, the people eventually stopped hailing her and actually listened to what she was trying to say. Here, Hans had been integral as well, speaking to the people on her behalf whenever her memories were too much to handle or they were clamoring too much for her to get a word in. He had seemed far more accepting of her and confident in her judgments since the end of the fight. Perhaps because he’d briefly seen inside her mind and realized she was just as human as he was.   
He’d been on the forefront of helping to schedule the Arendelle repairs, guiding the people back into Arendelle and reconnecting lost ones with their families. Whenever he brought up a suggestion in their meetings (which Elsa could not have kept him out of if she tried because he followed Scara around like a puppy), he was polite and gracious in his delivery, without a hint of malice or underhanded play.   
Elsa suspected all his sudden changes of heart had something to do with Scara but there was no way to prove it. Unless she was supposed to count the fact that their hands hardly ever left each other’s grip during those crucial days.  
Now that he had reconciled with Død, it seemed his hatred of Elsa and Arendelle had crumbled like leaves and flown away in the wind. He had seemed more at ease with himself, less like he was constantly hiding behind a mask. His deceitfully charming exterior had slipped away revealing a personality that, while rough and occasionally sly, could be likable if given the chance.   
He’d grown more open and frankly, more intimate with people now that his powers had been calmed. He often made excuses to offer a friendly pat or touch to whomever he was speaking with nowadays (a habit that Kristoff couldn’t seem to stand). Elsa knew he was just trying to make up for years of missing that sensation and she allowed him to respectfully kiss her hand upon greeting her.   
Hans had proven most useful when planning for relocating the displaced people. It had been his idea to construct ice huts for those without shelter and he’d led the effort to clear out the market district with the help of the Informers.   
The children had been another critical driving force behind Arendelle’s survival. The Ice Informers had changed entirely, renaming themselves the Arendelle Youth Sentries and falling under the independent, collective leadership of Dagrun and a boy named Nyle. They mostly operated separate from the palace these days, choosing instead to be a force for the people that not only provided education for the young and distributed materials, but also served as a two-way connection between the citizens and the royal family. They had been an instrumental force and monumental help during Reconstruction, identifying groups in need of aid that Elsa would have completely overlooked otherwise. She’d publically recognized them for their commendable actions during the Battle, bestowing larger snowflakes upon Dagrun and Reba, and placing one as a memorial for Ichataca just outside the gates. Dagrun had wept silently upon its creation and vanished among the crowd without a sound.  
Elsa hardly saw Dagrun these days. He’d been avoiding the palace since the battle but he’d still visit Anna occasionally. Reba was a much more constant presence nowadays. She’d left the Informers entirely and instead seemed devoted to providing whatever service Elsa required of her. Acolyte, Elsa’s mind told her, even as she shuddered at the thought.   
But Reba was always helpful and considerate, never pushing Elsa too far towards discomfort and never overstepping her place. An Agog had turned out to be very useful for relaying messages.   
All of them had settled in for a long winter, secure in the knowledge that it was entirely normal and that Arendelle would emerge from it once more.  
As soon as the paths opened for spring, Hans and Scara had left the castle; Hans knowing Anna wanted him around just about as much as she wanted Arendelle to no longer import chocolate and Scara anxious to return to the only home she’d ever known after several long months away from it.  
Elsa didn’t know if they were staying but somehow she doubted it. Everything was different now. The Mother no longer spoke to them, Goren was all by himself in the library, and somewhere out there was probably a young guardian searching for his four charges.   
Before they had left, Elsa had approached the Spring host alone to talk with her about the future of the Council. She’d barely begun when Scara interrupted her: “No question, I think the human form of a goddess far outranks a host…you do what you think is best.”  
She clearly had no interest in accepting the role of Head Councilor, assuming they even still needed one. Elsa had remained in Arendelle.  
The trolls had remained very quiet throughout this whole period. Elsa suspected they were hiding in shame but wasn’t about to ask Kristoff to take her up there to talk to them. She wasn’t ready to face them yet and she doubted he was either. But she knew she would have to eventually if she ever wanted to know what had truly happened that day the seasons had fought.  
A gentle touch on her shoulder rose Elsa from her thoughts. Anna smiled at her. “Elsa, I know you’re worried but…don’t give up on her. I never gave up on you and look where it brought us.”  
Elsa nodded, discreetly wiping away a tear before turning to face her sister. “I know Anna…and I’m so grateful for that. Truly I am. But…with each day that goes by, I feel a little more confidence slipping away.”  
Anna took her hands, giving them a gentle squeeze. “Elsa…you’ll find her. Or, when the time is right, she’ll find you.”  
Elsa looked away, unable to cling to the hope her sister placed in those words.  
Theonia had not been seen since the battle. As soon as Elsa had quieted down her newfound powers enough to think clearly again and not like a goddess on Earth, she had searched high and low for the black-haired former host. But Theo had vanished like smoke, leaving nothing behind but scorch marks on Arendelle’s stones.   
Scara missed the black-haired girl furiously, Elsa had seen her gazing sadly into a roaring fireplace several times over the winter, tiny seeds opening and closing in her palm until Hans gently stopped her. But they had not held a funeral. None of them were ready to accept that she was truly gone.  
But where the fate of Theo was unknown, that of her spirit, not so much. Branna was gone, or at least sleeping once more. Isen had tried to reach out to her but it always felt like there was something in the way. A thick wall of sand and heat that was too dense to be penetrated. It was as if the summer spirit had encased herself in a cocoon and hidden herself far away from them all, determined not to be disturbed. Elsa’s memories of what had happened just after her Song were foggy at best, clouded by smoke, choked by pollen and leaves, and dwarfed by the memory of her sister’s voice redefining her identity. She could not remember where Branna had gone after that moment when they had all been one.   
For now, there was no summer host. And for all Elsa knew, the summer spirit had taken Theo’s life when she forced her way out of her body in the heat of battle. And as assuredly as the seasons turned, Branna was finding herself a new host, her old one forgotten and lost in the past.   
“I know you cant forgive her for what she did Anna…” Elsa said quietly. “But thank you for understanding.”  
Anna’s jaw was set, trying to hide her hatred of the girl who had almost destroyed Arendelle from her sister. “I understand how much she means to you as your sister host. But…after everything…after losing Olaf like that…I…” She shuddered and took a deep breath. “It’s hard for me to see her as anything but a destroyer.”  
Elsa nodded, her heart split painfully. One the one hand, she wished she could have articulated exactly how much Theo meant to her, even if Anna still could not accept her. But she couldn’t deny that there was a small part of her that would never accept what Theonia had done and would resent her for it for a long time. When she’d discovered that Olaf was missing, it felt like a piece of her heart had been ripped out. But Arendelle was in chaos and she’d needed to put her concern about him out of her mind for awhile until she could get her kingdom stabilized.   
Several days later, when she’d been walking along the beach, she’d found a shriveled carrot, next to a small oval of thick glass. It wasn’t too hard to guess what fate or rather, person Olaf had met.  
Telling Anna had by far been the worst part.  
“She…she melted him…” Her sister’s hands had trembled terribly as she held the carrot. Elsa feared she would shatter and hurried to embrace her. Anna fell against her, crying hard. “You did always warn him about the heat…” She choked out, wiping her eyes on the icy handkerchief Elsa had fashioned for her.  
“I can try to make him again.” Elsa had offered, snow already swirling at her fingers.  
“Elsa.” Anna had said quietly and her powers stilled. Anna didn’t have to say anything else. Elsa already understood. She knew that even if she succeeded in somehow reviving the animated snowman, they would never look at him the same. Their relationship was different now, more mature and deeper than it had been when she’d accidentally created life. Olaf was a part of their past, a piece they had to move on from, rather than cling to. They would always look upon his memory with fondness and love at his role in bringing them back together. But it was time to accept that he was gone.  
In the present, Elsa squeezed her sister’s hands. “Summer was his favorite season.” She remarked, feeling tears well up in her eyes again.  
Anna winced. “I still miss him.”  
“Me too.”  
They stood in silence for a moment, enjoying the comfort the other was offering and marveling at just how much the past year had changed between them. A year ago, sharing something this painful would have been a fantasy for both of them. Even nine months ago, something as deep and powerful a pain as this was unimaginable in their newfound happiness together. But it made them stronger. Strong enough that nothing would come between them again.  
“Elsa…”  
Elsa blinked, giving her sister’s hands a squeeze. “Hmmm?”  
Anna had paled and her grip on Elsa’s hands had tightened until it was a vice. “I don’t mean to ruin the moment here but…” She glanced down. “I…I think my water just broke.”  
***  
Listening to Anna in pain was torturous. Being unable to stop the pain was maddening.   
“OH MY GOOOOOODSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!”  
Anna writhed on the bed, panting as another contraction ripped through her body.  
“No one told me it would hurt this much!” Anna shouted as Gerda bustled around laying out towels and a basin of warm water.   
The time since Anna had gone into labor had all passed by Elsa in a blur. One moment they were talking at the window, the next her sister was doubled-over in pain, clutching to Elsa like she was a lifeline in a storm and crying for Kristoff.  
Gerda had been summoned and the princess’ bedroom had been converted into the midwife’s office in less time then it took Elsa to get her sister back into bed and conjure up a small bit of ice to calm Anna down.  
The contractions had progressed at an unbelievable pace, leaving Anna moaning and clutching at her sheets with every new ripple of pain. Kristoff had appeared briefly but he’d hovered so much that Gerda had flatly told him to get out, shooing him out the door with flicks of her towel and promising she’d send Kai to fetch him if anything happened.   
Elsa stroked her sister’s hair, her arm trembling. “It’s alright Anna, you…you’re doing great just…”  
“HUUUUUUUUUUNNNGGGGHHHH!!!!!”  
Memories of thousands of lifetimes of pain flashed through Elsa’s consciousness and she furiously beat them back, determined not to lose her humanity now when her sister needed her most.  
Anna’s legs spasmed as another contraction overtook her. “Oh gods I feel like I’m burning up!” She cried.  
Sweat was pouring off of her and her eyes had rolled back in her head as if she had a high fever. Panicked, Elsa turned to Gerda, who was casually rolling up her sleeves.  
“Does she need more ice? I can refill her glass. Or surround her with ice. Or I can just place my hands on her sides and…”  
“I have a strong inclination to kick you out too, young lady.” Gerda snapped at her from her position at the end of the bed. “You’re worse than Master Kristoff. I know what I’m doing, I delivered both of you, didn’t I?”  
Elsa’s face contorted but she had no response. She settled instead for placing her cool hand on her sister’s forehead, which seemed to calm both of them down a bit. Steam rose from her sister’s warm skin where she touched it.   
“It’s time.” Gerda remarked. “Hold still, Anna!”  
Anna’s legs were thrashing about, Anna herself too delirious to listen. Leaping up from her position, Gerda grabbed hold of Anna’s legs, her plump little frame somehow managing to pin them to the bed and hold them open.  
“Get over here and catch this baby, Elsa!” She barked at the Queen.  
Elsa stuttered in confusion. “What…I…I…Me??”  
“I don’t care what supernatural powers you have, you’re a woman first and the queen second, now get down here and help me deliver your sister’s child!” Gerda was using her nanny voice, the voice that had always compelled the sisters to obey. Elsa could not have disobeyed her if she tried.   
She hurried down to the end of the bed and positioned herself where Gerda had been.  
“Right,” Gerda instructed her. “Hold your hands out, no, closer! And for gods’ sakes, don’t drop the little one when they come out.”  
Swallowing hard, Elsa glanced up and caught sight of a raven perched on the open window, watching the scene with its head cocked to one side. She ignored it in favor of her sister.   
“Ready now your Highness, push! Push Anna! Push!” Gerda coached her.  
Anna strained then fell back on the bed, panting heavily.   
A warm, wet thing slid into Elsa’s arms and squirmed. Frantically, she tried to get a good hold on it before it slipped right out of her hands. After a few breathless seconds, she finally managed to steady it with one hand under its neck and the other cradling its rear end. She heard it take a gasping breath and then let out a howl.   
“You’ve got a set of lungs on you…” Elsa murmured to the child as it continued to wail. “Just like your mother…” She held the newborn closer to her, shushing it softly.  
Gerda handed the Queen a towel and Elsa set to work gently wiping the child clean. The baby opposed the wet cloth at first, squirming and squawking its displeasure. But as Elsa gently and patiently cleaned away the birth fluids, the child’s vocalizations died down to contented murmurings and gurgles.   
When Elsa finished, she had to bite her lip to stop from crying. She turned to Anna, who was slowly returning to full awareness and was watching her carefully.  
Elsa smiled at her sister. “It’s a girl…”  
Anna’s whole face lit up, despite how tired she was. “Bring…her here…”  
Elsa obliged, showing her sister the tiny new human in her arms that continued to wiggle and squirm. Anna drew a shaking breath, new tears of joy gathering in her eyes.  
“She…she’s perfect.” Anna stroked her child’s head, still too tired to sit up and take the child from Elsa. Elsa didn’t mind at all. The little girl was warm and soft, and as incredibly delicate as freshly-blown glass. She could hold her all day.  
Gerda left them, crossing to the door and poking her head out.   
“Kai,” She called to the man waiting outside. “would you go and inform the Ice Master he may see his wife and daughter now?”  
Kai beamed and hurried off. Elsa glanced at the raven and it flapped mightily, diving off the window to return to its mistress. Reba would know even before the father did.  
Gerda began picking up her equipment and very soon had hurried off to the nearby washroom, leaving the royal family alone for a few moments.   
Elsa and Anna waited there together in awed silence, Elsa still holding the warm body of her new niece close to her. They examined the newborn as she nestled closer to Elsa’s chest.  
The child had soft hair the color of sand and skin that was just a shade darker than Anna’s, as if the child had been in the summer sun for a few days before her birth. She had delicately shaped face with a strong chin and high brows that obviously came from her father. Her tiny hands and fingers were restless, and seemed desperate to grasp at whatever they could reach.  
Anna caught one of her baby’s hands, smiling brightly as the newborn wrapped strong, warm fingers around her pinky.   
“She’s so beautiful…”  
“She has a great set of parents.” Elsa replied.   
Anna gently stroked her daughter’s cheek, brushing a tiny curl of hair away from her daughter’s forehead.  
“What are you going to name her?” Elsa asked.  
Anna didn’t think very hard before she answered. “Sophie.”   
The Queen’s heart swelled. “after Mom…”  
Anna nodded. “it only seemed right…plus, she looks like a Sophie, doesn’t she?”  
Elsa couldn’t agree with her more. She stood up, gently rocking the baby in her arms. “Hello, Sophie…” She whispered to the child. “Welcome to our world.”  
Then the newborn opened her eyes. Eyes the rich amber-red color of a dancing flame.   
Elsa froze. Deep inside, she felt the ancient part of her shiver in recognition.  
“Branna?”  
The baby girl cooed and a small lick of fire burst from between her lips.   
“Oh no…” Elsa’s first instinct was to shield the child from Anna’s view, to keep the startling discovery a secret. But, she reasoned, Anna was going to find out soon enough.  
She turned to face her sister. Anna was sitting bolt upright in bed, staring at the two of them. “Elsa,” She said slowly. “is my baby the goddess of fire?”  
Elsa hugged the tiny girl closer and breathed a soft flurry of snowflakes over her. The girl cooed again and stretched out a hand into the flurry, causing it to melt mid-air. Steam tickled Elsa’s face. Elsa’s heart pounded loudly in her ears. “Yes dear sister, I’m afraid she is.”  
There was a moment of complete silence between them.  
“Did you…?”   
Elsa nodded slowly. “I must have…but I have no memory of it.”  
Suddenly realizing just how long she had been holding the child, Elsa passed her to Anna. Little Sophie squirmed and wailed at the loss of contact but as soon as Anna’s arms closed around her, she seemed content to close her eyes and curl into her mother’s warmth.   
Anna rocked her gently, making tiny happy sounds to her. She looked up at Elsa and her expression immediately morphed to fear.  
“Elsa…how can I…I mean…what do we do? Is she going to need special food? Or a special room or some kind of lava palace? Can you even build a palace out of lava? Does the goddess of fire like black or is that coincidental?”  
Despite her misgivings and shock, Elsa found herself smiling and then laughing with complete abandon.  
“What?” Anna demanded. “What’s so funny?”  
Elsa composed herself, still smiling wide. “Anna, look at her.”  
The child was curled comfortably against her mother, her tiny fist grabbing and clenching wads of Anna’s nightgown without so much as a puff of smoke coming from her.   
“She already has everything she needs.” Elsa remarked, her heart swelling. “I can’t think of a better mother for the fire spirit than you Anna.”   
And truly she couldn’t. Here her sister had just been handed the biggest conundrum imaginable: her baby was a volatile fire goddess with a historically fragile grip on her powers, and she worrying about making the child comfortable.   
Sophie gurgled, a small spit bubble popping in her mouth. Anna immediately wiped it away.   
“Oh Sophie…” Anna moaned, bringing the child up to her face. She nuzzled the girl’s nose with her own. “My little fireball, what are we going to do with you?”  
“We’ll do our best.” Elsa assured her, still a little afraid herself. “You and me and Kristoff, we’ll all do our best to love her and protect her.”  
Anna’s face fell. She tucked Sophie back into her arms, rocking her gently. “Oh gods, what do we tell Kristoff?”  
At that very moment, Kristoff pounded into the room, Sven hot on his heels. Summoned by the commotion, Gerda burst back into the room.   
What followed was a shouting match between Gerda and Kristoff as to what was allowed near a newborn baby and what wasn’t. Sven, excited by all the commotion, moaned and brayed loudly, summoning Kai once again, who unsuccessfully tried to wrangle the reindeer out of the nursery.  
Elsa just stood there in the middle of the room, still very shocked. In her mother’s arms, Branna/Sophie made happy little mewing noises and curled up to sleep as the chaos went on around her.  
***  
“I just…WOW.” For the first time in memory, Kristoff was at a loss for words. The Ice Master and the Queen were walking outside in the cool night air, taking a much-needed breather from the newborn. Both she and Anna were fast asleep, presuming Anna was not obsessively fire-proofing the nursery. She had already had to be talked down to sleep by both Elsa and Kristoff after she’d started composing a list of everything that would now present a danger to Sophie.  
Kristoff paused at the balcony of the courtyard, staring blankly down at the castle square.   
“I’m the summer spirit’s father…”  
All things considered, he was taking it rather well.   
“I wish I could have given you some warning.” Elsa said tentatively, joining him at the balcony. “But I had no idea Branna was going to do that…”  
Kristoff glanced at her. “You really don’t remember doing that? Putting the fire spirit…there?”   
Elsa shook her head. “I guess my mind is too human to be all-knowing…” The meditations helped but they could not help her recall everything. She delicately stretched her hands out in front of her on the balcony. “There are plenty of things I seem to be incapable of remembering from my own manifestation. I don’t remember how I figured out how to take human form…I don’t remember choosing a mother to carry me…”  
Kristoff shook his head in disbelief. “I cannot get used to you talking like that…”  
Elsa blushed slightly, wincing. “Sorry. I’m trying to do better.”  
“I mean…” Kristoff continued, straightening up and beginning to pace. “how do I…? How do we even go about raising her?”  
“I’m afraid that’s something we’ll all have to figure out together…” Elsa admitted, her gaze tightening. “As much as I loved my parents, they didn’t know how to raise me and we all suffered for it.”  
Kristoff paused in his mad pacing, gnawing on his lip. “Yes but you…” He seemed to be struggling to find the right words. “Ice isn’t as dangerous as fire. What if she sneezes and sets fire to the palace? Or burns herself? What if she has as much trouble controlling her powers as you did? How can we make sure that she’s safe? That she’s happy? And when people find out, what if they…?”  
Elsa laid a gentle hand on his arm, cutting off his hysterical tirade.   
“Kristoff,” She began softly. “I will be there for her, the whole way. We will balance each other out, I will teach her control and teach her how love calms the blazing flame and thaws the frozen ice. That is how it has always been and how it will continue to be as she and I live our human lives.”   
“I…I know Elsa….I’m sorry.” He ran nervous fingers through his hair, his blonde locks staying stiffly where he’d brushed them. “This whole thing is just…a lot to take in…” The ice master glanced at the queen. “You’re sure she’s not just a host?”  
“I recognized her.” Elsa replied, a tremor of her ancient voice leaking through. “She is the soul from the Mother’s Realm, born in human form, as I was…” her hands shook and she glanced up at the palace. “I don’t think she’ll ever need a host again.” She murmured, more to herself than to him.   
“It seems that by becoming human, we develop greater strength and control over our powers, once we master our emotions. Reba keeps telling me that Anna was the key to my gaining control. Perhaps Sophie needs someone like that too.”   
“She’ll have you.” Kristoff immediately replied. “And us. We will love her, all of us.”  
Elsa gnawed her lip. “I know.”  
The two of them were silent for a moment, leaning on the balcony to watch the empty square.  
“So if she’s the spirit,” Kristoff began after a long pause. “just like you are…I guess that means that there wont be anymore summer hosts?”  
She sighed heavily. “No…” Elsa examined her hands, rubbing the faint scars on them from the battle. “There wont be…” She gazed up at the sky, where the lights were starting to appear. “I do have to wonder where Theonia went after Branna left her though.” She admitted, ashamed of voicing her desire.  
Kristoff paused, glancing at her sideways. “You…loved her…didn’t you?”  
She supposed out of anyone, Kristoff would have been the one to figure that out.  
Ice crackled at her feet as her heart clenched. Elsa found herself hesitating and choosing her words with extreme care before finally answering him. “We never quite got that far. Maybe I would have, if circumstances had been different. But as we were…with everything that happened…I could never quite let myself love her…” her lip trembled, “especially after she…”  
Kristoff nodded in understanding. Elsa loved that he was able to understand and accept her twisted, confusing relationship with Theonia, a feat she hadn’t even been able to achieve. “And now…” She sighed. “Now I just don’t know. I want to know what happened to her but…”  
“But you’re afraid of what seeing her again will be like.”  
Elsa nodded. “Exactly.”   
“I’m sure she’s feeling the same way.” Kristoff said wisely. “After all, she has done some terrible things to you, I’m sure she’s torn up and confused, just like you are.”  
Elsa stared up at him hopefully. “You don’t think she’s dead, do you?”  
Kristoff gave a non-committal shrug. “She’ll turn up eventually I’m sure. After all, she inadvertently faked her death once before…”  
The two of them smiled quietly for a moment, recalling the odd circumstances that had brought the former host into their lives and the huge role she had played in both of them.  
“As I’m sure Anna’s already told you,” Kristoff said, “Don’t give up on her. You never know what might happen.”   
He clapped her shoulder once then went back inside to his wife and newborn daughter.  
Elsa stayed out a moment longer, inhaling the thick, warm summer air and feeling herself breathe easy for the first time in forever.  
It had been an interesting year. Her powers had been revealed, tamed and accepted. Arendelle was safe once again. Trade would flourish with Corona’s generosity, Melonia’s new partnership and compensation from the Southern Isles. Winter had come and gone without ailment and the seasons were finally turning in balance. Arendelle’s coffers were healthily full and the harvest looked promising after a little help from Scara. Elsa had been up to see her ice palace once more and had still found it to be a place of solitude and deep connection to herself despite the bad memories there and the new revelation of its meaning.  
She had a kingdom to take care of. She was back with her sister and her new family with no threat of vanishing again.   
She had a niece to mentor, a brother-in-law to keep sane, and a sister to make mischief with. She was a god that had achieved near perfect human form.  
All was well.  
Except.  
Elsa/Isen exhaled softly, unable to stop the small flurry of snowflakes that accompanied the action and the twinge of pain in her heart. It was in quiet, solitary moments like this that she allowed herself to admit her deepest want.  
She wanted Theo to come back. Even just for a moment, just to know that Theo was still alive, that she didn’t think any less of her for what had happened that day. Was it too much to ask the Mother that the two of them get some closure on the raging, swirling feelings that had engulfed them, overtaken them and finally torn them apart?  
Maybe so.   
Elsa waved her hand and the ground iced over for several feet around her, a perfect plane of clear ice. With a gentle leap, she hopped on it, skating as effortlessly in her heels as if she were wearing a fine pair of skates.   
She darted across the ground, calling upon the winter within her. Her powers flexed around her: each breath of cold was an extension of her body, each snowflake a cell in her being. Taking a deep breath, Elsa began to dance.  
She spun and glided on the ice, twirling like one of her many snowflakes. A breeze carried her effortlessly in a high, wide arc. With only a thought, her powers crept all around her, transforming the courtyard into a winter paradise: elaborate statues sprang to life, shapes from the Mother’s Realm and scenes from her human life. Icicles dripped from every available surface, snow drifts forming in wind-tossed shapes the mountains would be proud of. A small flurry of snowflakes followed her every move.  
When she tired so much she could hardly lift her arms, Elsa stopped dancing, her dress settling gracefully around her.  
In the center of the courtyard rose a magnificent sculpture, a centerpiece of this whole spectacle: a wave of ice curled into the shape of a flame that twisted and licked towards the sky. Standing in the center of it was a woman with short hair and intense eyes.   
The courtyard was silent. Empty but for her statues.   
Elsa had to laugh at herself.   
Stupid. Foolish to think that just because she repeated her actions the night they met it would somehow coax Theo out of hiding. If she knew Theo at all, she wasn’t just going to come waltzing back into Arendelle. She’d be as far away as possible, keeping her distance in the belief that it would be the best course of action.  
Elsa gazed up at the stars, the summer constellations blazing down on her through the cosmos. Perhaps it would be worth sending out Reba, or Dagrun and some of the Arendelle youth now that the passes were clear to scour the land for a hint of her. If she could get away, maybe she could go herself. Anything was better than nothing.  
Then again, maybe the mystery of Theo’s fate was a stone better left unturned. Elsa didn’t know how she’d react if Theo showed up in Arendelle proclaiming her love. Or if she showed up merely to turn her down entirely. Or if she said nothing at all.  
She didn’t know if knowing for sure that Theonia was dead would ease her or tear her apart. Garrett’s death had been difficult enough and she had barely known him. Theo was entirely different. Elsa didn’t know what to feel about her death if that was even the case. Garrett’s had been straightforward: he had died to save her and she never forgot it. But Theo…Theo had infuriated her, attacked her, nearly destroyed her kingdom and murdered her sister…but despite all of that, the deepest part of her that she had come to know as her immortal soul, still longed to know.   
Would she ever know?  
She stood alone in the dark for a long time, contemplating this confusing emotional hunger inside of her for a woman who had done her such wrongs. Finally, her concern for Anna and Sophie roused her from her thoughts and she headed back towards the castle. Elsa was about to turn to go back inside the castle when something caught her eye. She stopped again, staring.  
The northern lights had finally flared to life in the nighttime sky. They rippled endlessly across the black expanse in blues and greens and very rarely, a flash of red.  
But the breathtaking display overhead was not what had distracted the ice queen. Her gaze was drawn to a much smaller, perfectly reflected and rendered light show on the ground in the hollow between two stones.   
Her entire body shaking, Elsa stretched out her hand to pick the thing up, her heart daring to beat a little faster.   
It was a glass ball.  
***  
From a perch high in the mountains above the castle walls, a warrior knelt on the rocks, watching Arendelle. Her hair had grown out these past few months, it now hung down around her shoulders in raven waves. She had long ago abandoned her temple dress for the tunic and pants of her best friend.   
Months of solitary training in the Mother’s sacred grove had melted any excess fat from her body. Bands of taut muscle showed in her arms, legs and stomach. She had only what she had taken from the Hall beneath the Temple: a thick dark cloak, a long staff, the pouch, and of course, the sword.   
The ancient blade lay carefully in its sheath, resting on her palms as she watched the kingdom below. The kingdom that, less than a year ago, she had tried to destroy. The kingdom where she had nearly died.   
Instead, it had become a final test, and a rite of passage into her new life. Her new position... 

The blade was calling her, the voices of its former masters stretching out across a thick void to touch her mind. And at the forefront was him. He’d come back to her. When she had most needed him, he’d returned to save her. Just like he’d promised.  
“The era of the Council is over. The Sorcerer has completed his work in this world. It is time for the daughters to have a new Guardian.”   
The sword shone, the entire plinth in which it rested glowing with particles of the purest light. The choice was hers…she could walk away, leave it all behind for an uncertain fate and unknown future. Or she could seize the mantle and carry it herself.   
Slowly, she stood, the knife clattering to the floor.   
Garrett’s encouraging smile reflected back at her from the blade in the stone, not pushing her. Just accepting her, whatever she chose.  
She had always known her place. She was the one who worried about everything: big and little. She saw what was most important and always fought towards it. Her heart encompassed all she cared about with fierce bands of love and loyalty. She was the one who kept them safe.  
Her role was set. It always had been.  
The ancient sword slid from the stone plinth as if it were a knife through butter. As it came free, a burst of white light filled the chamber.  
She almost laughed with how easy this was. The pain, this final transformation into what she was to become was effortless compared to being a host. It was like slipping into a coat ready-made for her.   
Holding the sword before her, she nicked her thumb on the edge, tracing her blood up and down the length of the blade. It accepted the offering eagerly, throwing its light around her until she was encased in a cocoon of warmth and knowledge.  
The sword became hers and she became the sword: the power of a spirit was now hers to wield.   
She lifted the sword high and became the Guardian.  
She had walked the path ingrained in her mind from the memories of dozens of her reincarnations. The path that only the Guardian could walk to the Mother’s Sacred Grove. There she had learned and trained as all her predecessors had. And when she was ready, she left to begin her new life…

Theonia gazed up at the glowing tendrils of the Mother’s hair overhead, watching them softly twist and fall with purpose and beauty. The delicate beauty reflected in her opaque eyes.   
Stay close to my daughters…protect them…guide them into this new age…Theonia, your purpose has only just begun.  
The Mother’s Final Command. Change.  
No longer would she be the host of the fire goddess. No longer would a spirit share her body. No longer would she carry the weight of the legends or the mantle of the Head Councilor.   
Her head was blissfully silent. Her hands were the perfect temperature.  
She had passed through her trials and found her peace at last.   
The Council was no more, the world was back in balance.  
After a moment, the new guardian rose from her vigil and strapped the sword to her hip with a smile.   
She had four spirits to find. And she knew exactly where one of them was.  
Her heart pounding, she looked towards Arendelle. “Time to do my duty.”  
***  
Fin


	19. Appendix 1: The Ice Informers: Children of the Great Freeze

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A bit of back-story on the three leaders of the secret spy network from the files of their elusive Mistress.

Dagrun: The leader  
Aged 6 summers.   
Real name: unknown  
Head of the Ice Informers

Affiliation with Arendelle: Dagrun was born just outside the city proper, to a family of sheep-herders in the Northern Province. There is no record of what happened to them, but the boy claims he has been on his own since he was four.   
Dagrun was the first to meet the Mistress and was trusted with forming and leading the city-wide child information network. He claims to have created the name ‘Ice Informers’. He has a cheerful and optimistic attitude towards nearly everything and he goes to great lengths to obtain the information he seeks. He has been known to hide in fish barrels and squeeze himself down rubbish chutes to catch crucial bits of dialogue between targets.   
Dagrun learned palace manners and mannerisms from his brother and often attends formal events as a serving boy to listen to gossip from visiting dignitaries and suitors for the Queen. Oddly enough, on these nights, a majority of his reports go solely to the Mistress. 

How the freeze impacted him: Dagrun was living on the street the day of the coronation. His adoptive elder brother was scheduled to leave Arendelle the following day and he was searching for a place to stay for a few weeks when the snows began to fall. In the confusion of Queen Elsa’s escape and Princess Anna’s pursuit, he managed to sneak into the castle grounds and find warm refuge in the kitchens. For the next few days, he and his brother brought food to the camp of street children huddled together near the docks using a secret passageway he’d discovered inside the palace. After the Thaw, his brother and some of the other children fell ill and Dagrun made a solitary trip into the kitchens of the palace to secure food for them. Nothing is confirmed but it would seem this fateful trip would see to the formation of the Ice Informers. 

 

Ichtaca: The warrior  
Aged 10 summers.   
Real name: Maron (unconfirmed)  
Second commander of the Informers and street brother to Dagrun, sometimes works in the shipyard

Affiliation with Arendelle: Ichtaca remembers a ship carrying him into port but little else. He grew up an orphan near the water and loves to work at the docks when not on official business. He has done every odd sailor’s job including fishing, hauling merchant crates and climbing rigging to untangle snares.  
Ichtaca often wrestles with some of the deck boys and visiting ruffians from Arendelle’s trade partners and merchants. Because of this, he has developed significant muscle tone for a young child and an incredible sense for anticipating and responding to attacks and surprises. He admits to dabbling in swordplay and archery as well. He dreams of being captain of the Arendelle guard.  
When not collecting information at the docks, he is often found in the castle kitchens disguised as a page or messenger boy, organizing his ears among the staff, who remain unnamed and anonymous.

How the freeze impacted him: Ichtaca was set to leave Arendelle after the coronation. He had secured a job on Arendelle’s Horizon Wanderer and was sailing out the morning following the ceremony. The freeze locked his ship in harbor, stranding him without a job or money to support him and his adopted brother Dagrun. Hungry and desperate, he stumbled upon a camp of child refugees from the cold and made many friends, most of whom would soon become his brothers and sisters in the organization known as the Ice Informers.

 

Reba: The trapper  
Aged 7 winters.   
Real name: unknown, perhaps her code name is her real name  
Information master and organizer, everyone reports to her

Affiliation with Arendelle: Reba is surprisingly quiet about her past, what little has been recovered has been pieced together here. She says she arrived in Arendelle a year before the coronation, after a month of ‘wandering in the wilderness’.   
There is reason to believe she is an escaped slave from an eastern country (possibly Almania) although which one has yet to be determined. Whichever country she hails from, they reportedly have ancient legends about ‘the coming of the goddesses’. It is unclear exactly what this means.  
Her specialty is setting traps so subtle, the target never suspects that they have been caught. No one knows how she does it, but her information is always precise, complete and meticulously detailed. A report from an anonymous Informer of lower rank states that such traps take the form of carefully designed meeting locations for targets where either some kind of hidden tunnels or amplifying acoustics allow the girl to catch every tidbit of information uttered by the unfortunate and unsuspecting target.   
Reba has also been seen feeding and talking to ravens in the city. It is unclear exactly what purpose this habit of hers serves. 

How the freeze impacted her: Reba had been living in the woods alone when the time came for the coronation. She watched Elsa flee from Arendelle and saw the cold creep across the fjord, sealing everyone inside.   
Out of food and out of options, she crossed the frozen fjord and entered the city, hoping to find warmth and solace. Instead she found others like her: escaped slaves, orphaned children and street urchins, all of them cold and desperate as the Queen’s winter stole the comforting heat of summer. Realizing they were desperate to survive, she began to organize them, sending groups to collect firewood, scavenge for food and rig up shelters. Many of the street children caught in the freeze owe their survival to her and her knowledge of winter survival. It was in this makeshift camp that she met a sailor-boy called Ichtaca, who would lead her no more than a week later to her secret position for the kingdom.


	20. Appendix 2a: The Mother's Children: Forbidden Love: The Oracle and the Scribe

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> From the writings of Theonia, 115th host of the fire goddess Branna.   
> Tales of the four spirits, before they descended to Earth.

Theo slammed the door to the library behind her, her eyes burning with tears.

"She kissed me…she wanted it…right? I pushed her too hard…she doesn’t know…"

The aftermath of her actions in Elsa’s bedchamber left a dry, tacky feeling in her throat. Even now, three days after she’d left Arendelle and an exhausting trek across the mountains later, the feel of the queen’s lips still lingered on hers, a cool snowflake fluttered constantly in her heart, sending chilling shivers through her at odd intervals. 

Snarling in frustration, the summer host threw herself into a chair, her head in her hands. 

"I should have stayed…I should have explained…something came over me and I just…"

Branna was infuriatingly silent, ignoring or just not caring the emotional anguish currently effecting her host. She’d had enough of human drama to last a lifetime. Several lifetimes.

"Why do I care for her so much? Why is their love so apparent to me?"

Theo pulled her hands away from her face and her eyes fell upon a large tomb of scriptures left on the table. She recognized this one. How could she not?

Desperate for anything to distract her from endlessly replaying the kiss in her mind, Theo ran loving hands over the thick leather and cracked the enormous volume open to the story she herself had transcribed when she was only fourteen…

***

Forbidden love: the Oracle and the Scribe

Summer was not a child of the Mother. She came from the Light Goddess, the mighty spirit who had been banished to the underworlds by the Darkness of the Night Realm. When the Light Goddess dimmed, chaos reigned in her realm. The children of the banished goddess were scattered, sent raining down in storms of fire from the skies to cover the realms.

The Mother found Branna in her garden. She took pity on the abandoned child, taking her into her arms and vowing to keep her safe.

Branna grew up under the watchful eye of her Mother, and the constant companionship of her sisters: the Twins Livet and Død, and Isen, the Mother’s eldest. Even though her bond with Livet was strong, it was Isen, Winter, the Oracle with whom she connected most deeply. As time passed, Isen’s vision began to fade. Her dreams grew stronger, telling her of things none had seen before even as her sight failed. She was tormented by what she Saw, even as she could see no more.

Wanting to help her ailing sister, Branna became her eyes and her compassionate ear, lending her support, encouragement, and the ability to see through another. She took up her pen and began to compose stories for her dear sister, some based on what Isen saw, others from her own imagination and distant memories of another realm.

Branna’s Quill became a filter of her thoughts, a record of the visions that plagued Isen even as her sight faded. Branna had no ink, thus finding her own blood a worthy substitute for recording the wisdom she sought. So often was she taking Isen’s dictation or writing something new for her that the shaft and barbs of her pen became crimson in color and her arms became riddled with scars as she drew her ink.

Over time, this partnership grew into a dependence, then flamed into something no one had anticipated. The eldest daughter of the Mother found love…in the one who did the one thing she could not…write.

Their affair was secretive and yet all who gazed upon them seemed to know. They could not help but be close to one another, if one was suffering the other surely did as well, until they were united once again. So often did they share a bed that Branna’s room grew drafty and dusty. The Mother noticed and she became troubled. She feared for her eldest, as the one she had chosen to love could not stay in this realm forever. 

She went to Branna in secret and told her she was not to see Isen again, not as anything more than a sister. When Branna refused, the Mother intervened, physically keeping them apart. While they could still talk to each other, they could not touch. The fire-child Howled at the injustice of this, forever reaching for her lover but unable to touch her. Isen listened for this, unable now to both see or feel her love’s presence. 

Lonely and saddened at their forced separation, Branna left the realm and traveled far, hoping her absence would change her Mother’s mind and allow her to be with her beloved again. As she traveled, Branna also sought knowledge of the part of her she had never fully understood. The fire within her that the Mother of seemed to both revere and fear. Her journeys took her across several realms but always she wrote to her dear Isen. Isen had these letters read to her by Død and she held each one in a special place only she knew.

It was while crossing the realm of the Forgotten Dreams that Branna discovered her first star-brother. He was alone in the dark, struggling to fly from an abandoned battlefield where he had fallen so long ago. Here was another like her, another with that same fire inside. The memories rushed back, the knowledge that she had abandoned and forgotten her true family burning shamefully in her heart. 

The Scribe put down her pen and took up a sword.

Branna rallied her brothers to her, calling to the shared fire that connected them even across the realms. They came. Across inconceivable barriers and endless distances, they flocked to the call of their youngest sister. 

The children of the Light Goddess crossed the divide and blazed into the underworlds to rescue their flickering mother. The Darkness tried to swallow them, to extinguish their lights one by one but they fought valiantly, their inner fires burning brighter as they drove the Darkness back. Light and darkness clashed and all the realms shuddered as the battle wore on. 

In the Great Battle for the Light Goddess, Branna was struck down by the Darkness, her light dimming against its smothering power. She fell to the ground as her light faded.

Far away, Isen awoke from a dream, calling desperately for her love. It had felt so real, the piercing darkness, the fading away of everything. The dream consumed Isen and for days, she could not leave her room. No matter how many times Død knocked, Isen would not reply. She sang constantly out of her window, wishing desperately that her Song would somehow reach her wayward lover and bring her home. That somehow, her visions would be proven wrong.

When time passed and the letters stopped coming and the dreams offered her no solace from the vision of her love falling, she fell into despair.

Isen’s Sorrow came then, blanketing the realm in such cold loneliness that nothing could move. Nothing could stir. 

Nothing could lift it, not even the Mother’s Command. 

And it spread like a curse. 

It crept steadily across all the realms, rendering each one still and silent, locked inside a debilitating, lonely cold.

Isen herself was beyond reach, numb as she was to the cold and the devastation she was spreading. All she felt was pain for the loss of the one she loved. Abandoning her vigil within her prison, she fled across the realm until she reached the Ocean. There, she lay within the great waters and her spell sealed her within them, creating an icy tomb beneath the waves. Accompanied only by her unshed tears and the crushing weight of the Lonely, she lay in wait to join her lover.

All this time, her curse spread.

It snaked down to the furthest reaches of the underworlds where the remaining children of the Light Goddess struggled to keep Darkness back and free their trapped mother. It touched the Darkness, making it cry out and cower. It cornered the Light Children, trapping their feeble lights in the underworlds, the warriors too weary to fight through it.

The fight ground to a standstill, neither one able to overcome the Winter to continue their fight. The Darkness fled the cold, seeping back into the depths of the underworlds, taking its strangling power with it. The remaining star-children gathered about their mother, breathing as much life as they could spare back into her with the fires within themselves. Slowly, her flickering light grew stronger. 

Thus the Light Goddess returned to the skies above the realms, throwing her power down upon the ice and snow, blazing to try to lift the cold. 

She failed, for her light only bounced harmlessly off of the snows, unable to melt it or reverse the curse. Powerful as she was, she was powerless against Isen’s curse. But feeble as her light was, it stirred the sleeping form of her daughter, the fallen Branna, who slept beneath the blanket of snow, weary from her wounds. She blazed to life, the fire in her heart racing across her skin, warming the air she breathed. She burst from under the snow, her form glowing with heat.

For a small area, she could indeed reverse Isen’s spell. Seeing her work in the underworlds complete, Branna turned her focus towards the one she loved, stumbling across icy tundra and endless driving snows to reach the divide between worlds. Her journey took her many months but she tirelessly trekked on, the light inside of her leading her back to the Mother’s Realm. To her Isen.

She descended on a warm breeze to find the tranquil face of her beloved in her icy tomb. Softly, she reached into the water, the ice melting at her touch, and stroked the face of her sister. Isen slowly fluttered awake, her blind eyes taking in nothing but her whole form reacting to the touch of one kept so long from her. She let Branna pull her from the waters, steam rising all around them as Branna’s power pierced and melted her own. 

With a laugh of pure joy, they came together, bodies melding and lips meeting as their reunion struck home. 

Fire blazed across the realms, thawing each one and the Lonely once again lifted from Isen’s soul. So long as Branna remained at her side, never again would the Lonely claim Isen’s heart.

The two were never separated again, until the Mother banished her daughters from Her Realm and sent them to Earth, separating the Oracle from her Scribe so that they could not see their future or learn of the way back home. 

Thus, Branna became the Summer, who Howled in ferocity for the unjust separation from her love. Isen became the Winter and her Song reached across time and space, calling her lover back to her as she longed to be reunited with the one who could Thaw her frozen heart. 

***

Theo leaned back in her chair, her heavy eyes finally starting to close. Images from Branna’s memory played across her fading consciousness: melting the ice on the ocean, gently pulling her love into her arms…icy blue eyes that looked at her like she’d finally found something missing…

"Am I the one…to melt her frozen heart?"

The snowflake within her — born in Elsa’s ice palace — stilled its gentle motion as she slipped into sleep.


	21. Appendix 2b: The Mother's Children: The Twins: The Warrior and the Healer

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> From the writings of Theonia, 115th host of the fire goddess Branna.   
> Tales of the four spirits, before they descended to Earth.

Scara and Garret had been gone two days. 

Not that she was counting. Not that she was imagining them arriving at Arendelle, slipping into the palace and finding the queen. The lonely queen who kissed her like she was the only source of air…

"Theonia."

Her fist clenched so tightly, she felt her nails pierce her flesh.

Branna would not let her return to those thoughts. Theo pulled her other hand away from the Død scroll as a spark snapped from her index finger. Goren glanced at her but said nothing. He was too engrossed in the moving symbols on the scroll and the heavy tomb on his left. His eyes flickered endlessly between the two, trying to pick out a pattern that might hold a clue to where their missing host was hiding.

Theo stood and moved away from the table in the library, stretching out her aching neck and rolling her shoulders. She and Goren had hardly left that table this past week, pouring over endless documents and watching the Død scroll endlessly in case any new clues arose. The only times she took breaks was to meditate with Branna. And those were by no means restful. Her visions were always filled with Death, with fear and pain and blood…

Her hand brushed the spines on the shelves, drawing her out of her memory. Branna had guided her to a shelf in the dim corner of the library, the wood bent under the weight of books containing the oldest of scriptures — those written by Erin herself. The book on which her hand now rested, the one Branna had bid her to look at, was an ancient tomb, twice the size of the books she now wrote in. The leather smelt of oil and was so badly cracked, it was amazing the book hadn’t fallen apart. 

Theo gently pulled it down, the pages falling open to a story towards the end of the scriptures. She sank down among the shelves, the heavy book of her predecessor falling open in her lap and let the ancient words flow through her…here was a story she’d never seen before but knew all the same.

***

From the writings of Erin, 1st host of the fire goddess Branna, She who brings the Summer.  
The Twins: The Warrior and the Healer

Death came first. 

The Mother saw that Isen was lonely and it saddened her greatly. Her daughter’s Loneliness was affecting the realm as well, casting it in a perpetual state of cool and sharp air.

The Mother decided her daughter needed a playmate, someone to share her time with.

So came Død.

She was born on a cold morning, just as the banishment of the Light Goddess began and lights began to fade to the Darkness. Little Isen gazed upon her sister and the Lonely lifted from her soul. Warmth returned to the Mother’s Realm as Isen experienced love for the first time. 

Autumn into Winter. A perfect set of siblings.

But what the Mother had not anticipated was that Død would not come alone.

Livet soon followed, breathing into existence with a cry that shattered the silence of the realm and set everything trembling.

The world shook with the force of her Dance.

The Mother was startled, but that did not stop her from loving her unexpected daughter. Livet shared her love of all things alive, her desire to heal, and her talent for dancing. It was clear she was the Mother’s favorite child.

Where Livet was lively and constantly in motion, Død was still and more often than not, despised her twin sister for the love their Mother seemed to bear her. While her twin Danced and leapt about the Mother’s Garden, Død locked herself away in the silence and learned to Breathe. She would meditate for hours, trying to understand her anger, her fear, and her strange gift that brought ruin wherever she went. As the years passed and her powers grew, she withdrew inside the Mother’s Palace entirely, even as she longed to explore the Realm and see the inhabitants. 

Livet always encouraged her Twin to Dance with her, to wander and see the beauty around them. But Død could not bear to watch her sister create where it seemed she could only destroy. Her jealousy of Livet often manifested as anger and the two often bickered when left alone. 

Only Isen could reach the secluded sister, often mediating the gap between the Twins, keeping them apart when necessary and bringing them together when peace could be made. 

Likewise, only Branna could calm Livet when her own gifts overwhelmed her. The fire of the Sun-child was all that could curb the excessive growth caused by her dancing and Branna herself often taught Livet the importance of being still and waiting. 

Between the four daughters, peace was made in the realm of the Mother. 

But when tragedy struck, everything fell to chaos.

Branna fell in battle, her light extinguishing and her fire fading into the Darkness. Isen’s Sorrow swept across the realms, devastating all with its piercing, frozen Loneliness. Isen retreated beneath the waves of the ocean, sealing herself away in a vain attempt to join her beloved sister in the Beyond.

Without Isen, Død broke.

Her Breath quickly followed the Sorrow, the inhabitants of the realm wasting away where they stood, the whole land falling silent under her curse. Abandoned by the sister who always promised to contain her, Død left the Mother’s palace and traveled the realm, allowing her power to overtake her and wreak havoc. Her anger carried her far, bringing Death with it. She sought only to destroy. After all, that was all she could do.

Livet found she had to fight if the Realm was to survive. She rose against her twin and tried to contain her within the Mother’s Realm. Wherever Death went, new Life soon followed. 

Død tried to drive her away, tried to make Livet stop but her sister was persistent. Much as she had always been Livet’s shadow in childhood, now Livet had become hers. Without Branna to cease the endless creation of the new, Livet’s powers stretched across the land as Død’s had, choking everything with new life, the inhabitants multiplying until they consumed everything, only to die en masse once Død arrived. Such a display only served as a constant reminder to Død of the curse she had always carried. Where her sister created such beauty, she could only destroy. 

Angry and resentful, Død lashed out at her twin. And so the War began.

It was a battle such as the realm had never seen. The fate of all things hung precariously in the balance and suffered endlessly as it raged. When Død was stronger, everything suffered and died. When Livet overcame her sister, they were all forced back to life, back to suffer and die once more when the battle inevitably changed. 

The Mother tried to stop them but their gifts had grown too powerful. They were a force all their own now, one she could never hope to contain. The constant battle tore on, the raging war threatened to tear the Realm apart. Two halves of a whole cruelly so mismatched…destined to love but unable to find a balance.

As the Freeze of Isen’s Sorrow gripped the Realm, the Twins fought constantly above the frozen ocean, spilled blood on the endless snows, and shattering icicles with the vibrations of their attacks.

Død only wished to be free of her sister, to take her curse far away and be alone with it. But Livet would not let her go. She needed her sister, wanted her to stay in the Realm and find the balance she so craved for her gift.

As the war dragged on, Livet knew she would need help if she were to ever overpower her Twin. She went to the Mother and asked her for something, anything that might give her an advantage over Død. Wanting to see the war come to an end at last and her daughter to come back home, the Mother agreed to aid Livet. 

She went into her garden and, combining both her own magic and the powers of her daughter, created a beautiful flower that glowed with the golden light of the sun and pulsed life’s energy. Plucking this flower, she gave it to Livet. With its power, she could heal as well as slow the spread of Død’s curse. 

Død watched with a heavy heart as her own Mother turned on her to aid her sister. Her Breath grew sharper. She fled the garden before her curse would destroy everything.

So long as Livet had the Flower from their Mother’s garden, she could not hope to outlast her. She would need a weapon of her own, something to match and overcome the limitless healing power her Twin had acquired. 

Driven back again and again by Livet and the Flower, Død retreated to forge a weapon of her own. Deep in the heart of a volcano, using her sister’s Lonely tears and her own blood to cool the star-steel, she let her magic and the magic of the Darkness flood into the weapon. The result was a blade so poisonous, only she could hold it. Tainted as it had been in her blood, it turned its magic on all but her.

So here it was, the prefect weapon to end their constant war. The Sword.

But as she was returning from forging her great weapon, Branna was reaching into the frozen ocean to revive Isen.

The Sorrow lifted from the Realm and the in habitants rejoiced in the return of Summer. The snows vanished and the cold loneliness melted. But for Død, the war was not over. There was one last place she had to go if she ever hoped to be free: the Great Tree.

The Tree was older than even the Mother herself and its branches and roots stretched far across the realms. By climbing along a branch or sliding down a root, one could cross into another of the legendary realms and subsequently return. 

It was here that Død hoped to finally leave the Mother’s Realm and be free of her burdens.

But Livet had beaten her to the Tree and now she stood between her and the path to her freedom. The Twins faced off before the enormous, twisting roots. Død drew her Sword and Livet readied her Flower. 

But Livet had not come alone. Upon her return to the realm, Branna had awoken Isen and lifted the Sorrow. Now, the elder daughters had come to put an end to the war. 

But Død only saw them all rising against her. Even Isen, who had once been her only confidant. Død attacked them all, her poisoned blade threatening to overpower them with but a single blow. 

The battle raged. The Mother closed her eyes. 

Fresh from another battle, Branna held back Død’s curse as best she could, matching her blow for blow with her own weapon. Isen conjured a shield of ice to aid her, Livet reversed the damage they caused. 

Død grew more and more desperate. Her attacks became wilder, more dangerous. As Branna cornered her, she lunged for Livet, her evil blade raised to kill.

With a mighty heave, Branna sent the evil sword flying out of her sister’s grip.

The blade spun end over end until it buried itself deep within the roots of the Great Tree. Stabbing right into the heartwood.

Time drew a sharp gasp as the curse spread.

The Sword destroyed the Great Tree, the connector of all the realms. Not even the combined powers of Livet and the Mother could salvage it. Where the blade pierced the wood, the tree older than time itself rotted and crumbled to bits. The dust coated all the realms and faded into their fabric.

Such a loss was felt by all. 

Such a life extinguished was unforgivable. 

The Mother banished Death from her kingdom, sending Død alone to the world below to live out her eternal existence in exile. The Sword, She shattered, scattering the pieces to the winds. 

But to the Mother’s dismay, Død’s siblings would not let her go alone. Isen came forward first, asking that the Mother bestow the same fate upon her as she had upon her sister. The Winter had been her fault. If she had not lost control, Død would not have broken and the War would not have destroyed everything so precious. 

Branna came forward next, demanding that wherever Isen went, she would follow. Livet came forward as well, asking to be sent along so that she could keep an eye on Død and help reverse whatever destruction she wrought. 

The Mother was saddened greatly. Without the Tree, they could never return. If she sent them away, she would never see them again.

Isen, Branna, and Livet all still agreed.

Crying tears of Loss, She banished them all, confining them to their most basic forms and forcing them to rely upon humans for a physical form. Even though she knew the love Isen and Branna bore for each other, she split them up, keeping them between the Twins so that war might never again consume her children. Isen could slow the spread of Death and Branna could cease the creation of Life. But to do so, they could never be truly together again.

And so Død became the Autumn, her Breath falling across all things and ending their lives as her curse stole across the land. Isen became the Winter and her Song lulled all to sleep, to rest from the curse until life could come again. Livet became the Spring and her Dance shook all those living back to life and created new life where before there had been only the remnants of the dead. Branna became the Summer and Howled across the land to cease the acceleration of creation. Endlessly, they turned, finally in balance.

The Twins were forever separated so that their powers could not clash again and throw the world out of balance. The Lovers were forced apart to keep the world at peace.

Thus, the four children of the Mother were sent to Earth to live out the rest of their days in the Council of the Four Seasons.

***

Theo finished the legend with an unpleasant taste in her mouth. The book fell forward, sprawling open on the floor in front of her.

No, something was wrong here…there were inconsistencies between Erin’s stories and her own…

In the legend of Isen and Branna, there was no mention of a great battle between the other spirits. Only Branna’s fight against the Darkness and Isen’s eternal winter. 

And the Great Tree? She’d never heard of such a thing. In all the legends she had written, the spirits only spoke of falling to Earth, of Død’s banishment for some crime.

She had always assumed it was just the creation of the sword itself but…

She picked up the book again, scanning the ancient writing once more:

"The Twins were forever separated so that their powers could not clash again and throw the world out of balance. The Lovers were forced apart to keep the world at peace.  
Forced apart to keep the world at peace…"

"Does that mean…if Els…Isen and I ever…come together…we could upset the balance of the entire world?"

Branna had no words but Theo could feel her anxiety burning away within. 

There was no mistaking this fear. Somehow, sometime between when Erin had written this legend and Theo had first picked up the pen, the story had changed. Details had been forgotten or overlooked. Knowledge had been lost. 

But why? How could a legend change?

How could Branna have forgotten something as important as the Great Tree? Or Død and Livet’s battle?

Theo glanced down at the lines of the legend again, something at the bottom of the page catching her eye. She lifted the book up and peered at the writing.

Scrawled under Erin’s signature, in a completely different hand, was another sentence of runes…

Theo read them once. Twice. Again. But…how could…?

“Mistress Theonia!” 

Goren’s shout startled her so badly the book slipped from her fingers and crashed to the floor. The troll rounded the corner at a roll, springing open so fast he landed flat on his stomach.

“Theonia…” Goren said, not at all deterred by his clumsiness. “I’ve got it.”

She was shaking, actually trembling. “W…what?” She asked.

Goren stared hard at her. “I’ve got a positive lock on Død’s host.”

Theo leapt to her feet to follow the troll back to his calculations, her heart hammering with anticipation.

The book remained open on the floor, the final sentences of Erin’s scripture visible…and the last note that had been scribbled hastily and untidily by the desperate hand of her lover, Ileana… 

But a small gust of wind as the Summer host sped out of the room in pursuit of her sisters sent the pages flapping and shifting. 

The final annotation was covered by the pages of the past and remained unread.


End file.
